An Axe to GRiND
by Ocelot9
Summary: [Done because it sucks] The world of Remnant is a dangerous place for man and animal alike, but the danger only seems more prevalent to our four young protagonists as Grimm are the least dangerous of the monsters pit against them, but that won't stop them from achieving their goals; be it bringing justice, or seeking vengeance, finding lost loved ones, or just to feel alive again.
1. Trailer Garnet

An Axe to GRiND Trailer 1

Garnet

[In memory of Monty Oum]

 **Okay so quick foreword; this is a remake of my other RWBY Fic 'Gears to GRiND', I'm rewriting it because I wrote myself into a corner and had no idea what to do with the story and upon reflection I wasn't to happy with the varying quality of chapters so 'An Axe to GRiND' is essentially a recreation of the original with better character development and less buggering around.**

 _Except for Grants stories; you still manage to make those as incomprehensible as possible._

 **Shut up Rene, oh yeah; Rene can still do that 'talking to the writer' thing.**

 _Which is good because if I wasn't always over your shoulder keeping you in line your writing would be even worse than usual._

 **Shut up Rene… Oh and quick warning: the 'trailers' are going to be kinda lengthy chapters since their meant to establish the characters in the world, but after that chapters will be more restrained with a cap somewhere between 3000 and 5000 words.**

 _This is why it takes you forever to write you know, way too many words, I mean; I've read the entire 'Shinobi Hearts Ablaze' trilogy and it had less words than your constant drivel of a chapter._

 **'Shinobi Hearts Ablaze'… isn't that the yuri spin-off of 'Ninjas of Love'?**

 _What NO SHUT UP!_

 **Whatever… sorry for the long wait; lets begin with Grant's story:**

* * *

 **Grant**

"How about 'The Fox and the Hound', has a nice ring to it don't you think?" I ask as we keep walking, Fox doesn't say anything in response but I can tell he doesn't care for the proposed title.

"Oh come on man, it makes perfect sense: two creatures from different species that should be bitter rivals but are instead the best of friends. It makes perfect sense."

Fox doesn't break his stride and keeps replying with silence, "Ok fine I'll think of a different title…"

So I suppose proper introductions are in order; my name is Grant Cortello, adopted son of Victor Cortello: dust mining legend and renowned philanthropist, other than that I'm just your average city-of-vale product of the times; unkempt short red hair, t-shirt with the face of an Ocelot, Tactical vests that match your hair, twenty or so belts, y'know all the stuff the 'in crowd' does… I think; honestly I can never really keep up with this kinda stuff… Anyway I'll introduce my partner here: Grey Fox.

Grey Fox is my friend, thought one might find that hard to believe because usually you don't see a human and Faunus be friends around here, but I like him; he's a very kind person, good listener, is delightfully talkative, oh and he's a ninja; awesome right? With all the swords and the cloaks and stuff he just looks awesome; especially with his mask: a silver fox, fitting don't you think?

Grey Fox and I work for my grandfather as security guards patrolling the mining site and keeping Grimm away; usually it stays quiet enough because we have a large fence surrounding the perimeter but every now and then Fox and I have to chop a Beowolf in half, keeps you on your toes.

"Okay fine Fox; you come up with a title then." I say, slightly fed up with him rejecting my past five ideas.

"…"

"Oh when I say it you think it sounds stupid but when you say it its cool?" Man its hard to work with him sometimes, Fox is always brutally honest but he does know when to hold his tongue.

"Alright then, 'The Fox and The Hound' it is, now where were we? Oh yes, so for lunch I was thinking spaghet" **BOOM "…** Ti…"

{For effect listen to 'Grant's theme': Big Blast Sonic}

An explosion echoes throughout the compound shaking the ground like a parade of Goliath decided to storm through, with a wordless glance Fox and I charge towards the origin point to try and figure out what the heck just happened, Grey fox takes to the air leaping from building and machines to move faster, his black cloak whipping through the wind; man I wish I was a ninja…

But for what I lack in speed I can compensate for power; I feel the electric current rush through my body and I take a running leap and soar a good twenty feet before needing to land and jump again, that's just one of the perks of having an aura of electricity.

Within moments Fox and I arrive at the core drill where a pack of Creeps (those weird lizard looking Grimm) are wrecking the place, I spot a miner taking cover behind some containers and I run over to him: "How the hell did a bunch of Creeps get this far into the dig site without someone noticing!?"

The panicked miner points towards one of the secondary drills meant to pick up anything the prime drill misses, "We were cleaning out a shaft for the dust when we hit a cavern of some kind and they just ran out and started attacking everything, one of them even blew up the ammo dump!"

Well that explains both the explosion and why the other guards aren't raining bullet hell on these buggers. I turn to Fox and point towards a pair of Creeps ramming against the wall of the living quarters and he runs off to fight them, as he leaves I return my attention to the miner: "Hang on."

Before he can respond I toss him onto my shoulder and charge-jump onto a nearby crane, "Creeps are fast but they can't climb worth shite, lack of arms and whatnot, so I recommend you use this crane and make a blockade to keep these things away from the other workers." He nods to me and shakily gets into the cab as I leap back down.

"Grey Fox!" I call out to my partner who I see has since finished off the two Grimm from before and he runs up to me; "Okay, the guy in the crane is going to box them in and away from the workers so we need to hold these Creeps attention away from them, I'm thinking plan 7."

"…"

"Okay not that one, what do you suggest?"

"…"

"Well it's not a plan, but it's the perfect plan."

Man Grey fox thinks fast, though I wish he wouldn't take so much time to be eloquent when we're in combat, just a simple 'here's the plan:' would suffice, but regardless I run to a nearby emergency supply box we keep near the drills and rummage thought the contents for a flare-gun with which I turn and fire at the Creep, I manage to light one on fire as it runs around like a chicken with its head cut off before collapsing from the flame, this gets the attention of the rest of the Creeps as they roar and begin to charge towards me.

I drop the now empty the flare-gun and from the holster on my back unsheathe my pride and joy; my combat crowbar Clarity; the bane of Grimm and wooden crates everywhere. Clarity is an enigma: I've had her since I awoke that day in the woods without my memories just short of two years ago… But that's not important; what is important is I bash these freaks brains out.

As the Creeps charge I pick out two with a strong lead on the pack and I bide my time… wait, waait, waaaaaaaiiit, "Fox now!" As the Creeps lunge at me I sidestep and hook the leg of the front most Creep and using his momentum against him and swing him back towards his compatriot, while this happens Fox is leaping from Grimm to Grimm stabbing them through the neck as he kills them without notice, this is our tactic, agro: I take the enemy attention and distract them while Fox sneaks behind them and covertly takes them down, it's an effective tactic but I have learned the hard way how much damage my aura can take while being the distraction…

The Creeps, now reduced to only five, finally get wise to Fox's assassinations and they split into two groups and try to attack us both, Three head towards Fox but I know he can handle himself, meanwhile I only have the two… oh crap I forgot about the other ones I tossed earlier.

I find myself surrounded by four Creeps now, each of them drawing closer to box me in, but this can actually work in my favour; remember how I said I had an aura of electricity?

"Fox it's about to smell like burnt lizard in here!" I thrust my right arm skyward holding Clarity aloft and shout "Rakurai!" (Means 'lightning strike' if what is about to happen didn't make that apparent.)

My crowbar spews sparks of lightening as I slam it into the ground and a wave of black energy rips through the Creeps, two of their heads just pop from the overstimulation of their nervous system but two still stand, though the look more like burnt chicken than lizards now, one of them comes too and tries to slash at me while I'm still recovering from that move but I manage to block the blow with Clarity.

The forces form the attack does push me back a few feet however, but that only gives me another opportunity; I holster Clarity and pull out my second tool, a tomahawk, this tool isn't quite as powerful as Clarity but it works just fine, I use it when I need to take a lightning break, lest I potentially fry myself you see. Well that and the fact it's a family tradition: we wield the family tomahawk until we are ready to build our weapon… someday soon shall be my turn in the great forge… Oh shit right I have Grimm to fight.

I look over to Grey Fox to see how he's fairing; it appears he has finished his targets, which the second last Creep has also noticed and leaves its partner to charge at Fox, I try to give chase but the Creep that attacked me doesn't seem to want to cooperate so I take my tomahawk and smack him right in the face which causes him to spin around giving me time to leap onto its back where I stab my tomahawk into its back, causing the beast to cry out in agony, "Alright you S.O.B, charge!" I force the small axe forward and the Creep begins to charge towards Grey Fox and the other Grimm.

"Fox!" I cry out to my friend; by now he's had a chance to catch his breath but the other Creep was only a few feet away and these buggers are really, REALLY fast, but thankfully the Grimm I commandeered has made good progress in catching up; I Rip my tomahawk out of the freaks spine and hope my ability has recharged enough to let me do this; "Raitoningu jump!" I force as much energy to my legs as I can and leap off the Creeps back full force and launch myself at Fox.

Times seems to move in slow motion as I fly towards Grey Fox, but that only makes things easier; Fox heard me call out and has taken stance, as I fly towards him I reach out towards him and he complies by reaching out as well; when I get close enough he grabs my arm and I force myself back to the ground and using the momentum we execute or final attack; "Lorentz-FORCE!" I throw Fox as hard as my lighting strength allows me; sending a shock through Fox's body which he channels into his katana, as he flies I call out "The speed of the wind, and swift like thunder, finishing move: Ninja storm!"

With that Grey Fox tears through the Grimm as thought they were paper cutouts, slicing them into ribbons until theirs nothing but a pile of severed limbs where they last stood.

With the Grimm eviscerated Grey Fox loosens his stance and sheaths his katana, I return to his side while he does; "Holy crap Fox we actually got the Lorentz force to work, that was awesome!"

"…"

"Ha ha, right you are Fox. Now come on; let's go tell those workers it safe now."

As we turn to head to the building the workers barricaded I check my 'watch'; the little quotation marks are there because this thing might be shaped like a watch but time isn't the only thing it tells; it's a prototype that takes some of the functions of a scroll such as aura gauging and lets just say it's a good thing that fight ended when it did; I had no more than five percent left, which meant I couldn't use my semblance until we get some time to recharge; my semblance is tied to my aura, using it like a battery to fuel my lighting attacks so its very risk/reward, thankfully we dealt with all the Grimm when we did.

 **SKRAAAAAAAAHHH!**

 **"…"**

 **"** Don't tell me; Elder Creep that waited until its lesser pack mates were done?"

"…"

"It has gigantic teeth and is ?"

"…"

"Bring it on."

We turn and face the new Grimm as it looms over us, younger Creeps are only about four feet tall but this beast was at least seventeen feet tall with fangs longer than I was tall and here we were two tired teenagers with no aura left to spare… oh dear.

Fox didn't waste a single moment as he leaped onto the beast and started stabbing wherever he could causing it to start thrashing about, and here I was only about five feet from it while it tossed debris and scrap everywhere so I was forced to dodge this way and that trying not to get crushed as my aforementioned aura was still recharging so I had no shield and when uncontained crystals and other dangerous crap is being shot everywhere you kinda want some protection.

I manage to dive behind an overturned forklift for cover as a small crate of red crystals is flung past me and hits a wall behind me breaking the box and dropping a handful of crystals to the ground… I can work with this; "Grey Fox!" Fox stops stabbing into the Big Creep and leaps off its back and to my side behind the forklift and I tell him my new plan; "Ok so I take these crystals and rig the to the busted second drill to the crane winch and while I do that you lead the bastard under the crane and once we get it into position we drop the drill straight onto it and blow the drill with the crystals, its going to be risky but what have we ever done that wasn't?" Almost as thought it was trying to emphasize my point the large Grimm leases yet another echoing roar and smashes yet more miscellaneous construction equipment.

Before the creature can wreak any more havoc Fox acknowledges the plan and leaps off to fulfill his role in it while I grab up as many crystals as I can and make my way towards the crane where I left the worker from earlier, I also check my watch to see if I have any aura back yet fifty three percent and charging, that should be plenty.

I Grab Clarity off my back and use her like a hook to pull myself up the cranes ladder as I have one arm occupied with a box of volatile explosive crystals so a little help doesn't hurt, as I reach the top I see the worker once again, "Good to see you stuck around friend; I need your help with the crane." I quickly fill him in one the plan and he agrees to help after some minor hesitation, I can't say I blame him given the circumstances.

The worker, named Smithers as I just found out during that interaction; brings the crane arm around and grabs the remains of the secondary drill, its in rough shape but we aren't digging a hole with it; just rigging it with explosives and dropping it on a huge lizard.

As 'Smith' lifts up the drill I use Clarity as a hook to swing over the end of the crane arm and drop onto the drill and quickly start strapping crystals to the jury-rigged drill bomb.

I manage to jam the final crystal into the drill as another roar rocks the compound, following this I see Fox leap atop a nearby cargo container while fleeing/ leading the Creeper.

"Fox I've got the drill prepped get that big SOB under it and we can" Before I can finish the giant creep charges into the container sending it flying at the drill forcing me to bail off, I franticly reach out towards anything I can as in my panic I didn't exactly have time to plan my landing, but as the ground gets closer and sharper with the large chunks of scrap metal now strewn about I felt like I was about to go into shock… great; add ironic insult to lethal injury.

But instead of the feeling of burning metal bursting through my chest my heart began to soar as out of the ashes comes Grey Fox in mid flight and grabs me before I become an extra crispy shish kebab, after he grabs my hand we use his momentum to swing towards the crane where I can hook on and we can get down without getting skewered.

Y'know it occurs to me; where's the kaboom? There should have been an explosion from the drill being hit… "Oh shit Fox is the drill still swinging? I lost track of it in the smoke and as thought the universe decided to answer my question in the most dickish way possible just as I manage to hook onto the cranes support structure the drill appears through the cloud of cinders and arcs toward the supports we were holding onto; and once again with the slow-mo… I swear I have a copy of Max Payne lodged in my skull or something.

At first Fox and I brace ourselves but upon observation its evident the drill is moving too slow to really do any damage and isn't just in slow motion, we breathe a sigh of relief as the drill gingerly taps against the crane then swings away harmlessly, I take the opportunity to look up towards the cockpit of the crane and see Smithers activated the armored canopy of the crane; if this entire crane fell over in a fiery explosion he'd be untouched while in that thing, which is good because the fires around up are getting bigger and the drill is still wired to blow…

"Ok Fox we need to get to the top of this thing and cut the drill before it catches and blows up!"

"…"

"Yeah exactly, so I'm going to swing you around and up and you need to grab a strut and then swing me up."

"…"

"Oh crap your right we would need rope to do that properly… ok then you just be a ninja and climb up then and I'll just use Clarity to get up."

I swear Grey Fox sighed as he pokes me in the ribs which causes me to shock him a bit, he then uses the charge to run up the crane; I hate when he forces a shock though because it feels friggin weird when someone pokes me in the ribs… oh right big dangerous drill thing.

I start climbing as fast as I can and manage to make it to the arm of the crane where Grey Fox has already started making his way to the tether, I pull myself up and start inching along the frame towards the drill; honestly I don't really need to be so careful as there's plenty of room to walk and the crane but that huge Creep is still down there thrashing around…

Once I made it to the end and met up with Fox we started working on how we'd cut this thing without blowing ourselves up; "Okay uhh maybe I could Lorentz force throw you and you could cut the tether so if I aim right you can then land on the roof?"

"…"

"Ah your right; we're at a bad angle, I'd never make that kinda shot… uhh okay I climb down to the base of he drill and sever the cable then Raitoningu jump before the freefall?"

"…"

"Ahh good point, no guarantee it fall straight seeing as its still swinging and that could really mess up my trajectory… uhh…"

"…"

"Really? You think we'd have a chance doing that? Well I suppose you've yet to let me down… alright, let's try it."

This plan is borderline suicidal; just like all our other plans tend to be, which meant we had a pretty good chance of succeeding.

Fox and I would drop onto the drill and cut the cable and then I would Lorentz him into the crane structure which he could rebound from; grab me, and land safely on the ground near the overturned storage containers in case this thing blows when it lands, thought thus far the crystal charges have proved to be pretty resilient.

We drop onto the drill and set the plan in motion; I start to charge as Fox slices the cable and looses the drill, this is where it helps to have literal lightning reflexes as I grab Fox and threw him towards the crane, he vanishes into the smoke but I hear the clang of metal as he connects with the strut and I take stance in preparation for him to basically tackle me off of this thing…

"Uhh Fox t-minus twenty seconds and losing altitude fast! If you could jump back now I'd really apprectia" **GRROAAAAARRR!**

Oh shit.

Great; now I'm falling off a big explosive drill towards the ground at an alarming rate with a giant beast waiting to catch me for dinner and my ninja friend is nowhere to be seen, I can't even hear him saying anything which is an even worse sign.

With Fox nowhere in sight and the ground, and Grimm, coming closer at an alarming rate I moved out of desperation; I forced all of my lighting into my left arm and waited; in ten seconds this drill would be only a foot from the ground and that's when I decided it will explode and take that friggin Creep with it.

The only problem was I was still on top of this thing, so chances are after I burn my aura to shock and activate the charges I won't have much shielding from the blast, but if it meant I could kill this damn thing and save the workers still trapped in the compound it would be a worthwhile sacrifice… I hope…

It was now or never, I raise my fist and slam it down onto the drill unleashing all my pent up energy.

"Lightning mega drill burst!"

I felt if I was gonna go out on a giant exploding drill while fighting a giant lizard I was gonna shout something cool… thought it occurs to me nobody would have actually heard that… aww man…

Electricity ripples across the metal surface of the drill and passes through the dust charges as it flows, I can see the crystals reacting as the begin to glow brightly and for a split second illuminate the surroundings thought the smoke and ash, I can see the giant Creep once again; mere feet form where the drill will land and well within the blast range, so at least I know I would be taking that thing out.

I wait for the inevitable boom as my surroundings still feel like slow motion, weird side effect of lightning, must be like the shock to my sensory system or something…

It honestly feels like an entirety has passed by the time the drill hits the ground with a thud, followed by the blast of the first charge going off; I brace myself to be hit by the blast but instead of being thrown by a ball of fire I find myself being tackled off of the drill and into the air… oh no way, "Fox! You saved me! I knew I could count on y" Before I could finish the drill detonates; the force of the blast sends Fox and I flying but away form the ensuing fireball which consumes near everything in a twenty foot radius, including the Grimm.

I watch the massive beast thrash and struggle as its body is coated in flames and burning shrapnel jabs into its flesh, it's a gruesome display but I can't help but find some sick enjoyment of eviscerating another Grimm abomination in such a manner, this is the last thing I see before I feel my head smack into something hard and metal and all I see is black.

* * *

When I awoke I found myself in a hospital bed in Vale where a nice young nurse with pretty ginger hair tells me what happened; after the fires were dealt with Smithers had apparently found me and Fox and got us here seeing as we were unconscious.

Seeing as I still had all my limbs I assumed I was fine and asked her where Fox was so I could see him;

"Him? Oh, your friend is in the next room over but I'm afraid… err"

"Grey Fox, he prefers to be called Grey Fox."

I leave the room and head over to Fox, he was asleep when I arrived so I decided I'd sit down next to the bed and wait to see if he wakes up, I wasn't about to leave my best friend again.

…

After about twenty minutes Fox stirs and wakes up, this is good because I was getting antsy sitting here waiting, I'm not a fan of hospitals, but then; who is?

When Fox came to he was quite alarmed to find one of his arms restrained with an IV injected, but I managed to calm him down after he punched me in the face a few times out of instinct.

After Fox calmed down and I could feel my nose again I quickly recap what I learned to Fox, thought that honestly wasn't much but Fox nodded after a bit so I guess its good enough.

After a few minutes the nurse from before came in explained that the hospital needs to keep Fox overnight for minor surgery. Apparently Fox twisted his ankle to the point it's near broken so they need to set it back into place, that sounds painful but after Fox pulls down the blanket off his feet I can see why they need to do it… I probably would have puked if I still had anything in my stomach.

"Don't worry; it looks a lot worse then it is, your friend is quite fortunate all things considered; thought we recommend she stays for at least three days so we can see that its set properly after we operate later."

As the nurse continues to speak I place my hand on Fox's shoulder as I feel him tense up at the mention of surgery, it was understandable he wouldn't like the sound of having to be strapped to a table while people stand around him with sharp objects and pump anesthetic into him…

I lean closer to Fox and try to reassure him; "I won't let anything else happen Fox, besides these doctors took the Hippocratic Oath; you'll be fine."

I feel Fox ease his muscles and relax a little after the whispered pep talk and I let go as the nurse seems to be finishing saying whatever it was she was saying,

"And that's why I'm afraid you won't be able to stay here sir."

… I really need to pay more attention to what people are saying, "Wait, why can't I stay with Fox?"

The nurse removes her glasses and pinches the bridge of her nose, probably tired of trying to explain things too me when I keep blanking out;

"If we are going to operate we will have to take 'Fox' and get her cleaned up considering the both of you are still covered in dirt, then we need to have to take blood tests and make sure there aren't any problems that could lead to complications during the procedure, so I'm afraid its required you leave for your friends sake."

I'm about to go all Phoenix Wright on her with my objections but before I can Fox grabs my hand;

"…"

"But Fox,"

"…"

"… Alright Fox, if your sure."

Fox nods and releases my hand, and reassures me he will be fine without me… I give Fox a quick and only slightly awkward bro-hug and have a quick chat with the nurse, she said she'd call when Fox was ready to leave:

"This is the number that should come up in caller I.D," the nurse hands me her contact information on a business card:

"Doctor Donna… and here I thought you were a nurse."

Dr. Donna seems a little unnerved by my statement and replies "And why is that? Is a female doctor really such an odd sight for you?"

Oh I f**ked up my phrasing again.

I tried to elaborate without digging a deeper hole; "No I've met female doctors before, I just thought you were a nurse because I've never met a doctor who wears the little hat with the red cross on it."

Dr. Donna flusters slightly as she takes off the nurse cap and shoves it into a pocket on her lab coat; "Ahem, okay then… well like I said we'll call as soon as she can leave."

I thank Dr. Donna and mark her name down in my scroll and take my leave of the hospital, to my surprise a grey limo pulls up, I recognize my father's driver and climb in the back.

The ride is silent save for the occasional cough from me; I take caution as I apparently still have some dust in my lungs as licks of flame occasionally surface with said cough prompting a snicker from the driver.

After short of an hour the car stops in front of my father's house and I step out of the car and walk to the door, I step inside and rub my shoes off on the welcome mat and make my way into the living room where I find my father sitting in his chair and facing the fireplace.

"Umm… Hi dad."

Without looking away form the fire my father replies; "Hello son, sorry I couldn't meet you at the hospital, I had very pressing matters to attend to based on the events of yesterday."

"I understand… Oh uhh Fox won't be back for a few days because he got hurt, the hospital said they'd call when he's better…"

"I'll see to it some one will be ready to pick him up when that happens, now I think you should go clean yourself up; we have some important matters to discuss."

I nodded and left for my room on the next floor.

As I washed myself clean of the soot and ash I couldn't help but dread what my father meant by 'important matters', he isn't an easy to anger man but the way he spoke…

The only thing I could really figure was that he was upset that I allowed a pack of Grimm into the camp in trying to destroy them leveled about a third of the facility…

I figured it would just be best to get it over with now so I grab some fresh clothes; I grab another Ocelot Tee (I have ten), some black cargo pants, my vest, and my tunnel goggles, I then slip Clarity and the tomahawk back into the holsters, I turn to leave the room when I realized I forgot my belts;

"Okay, three belts per elbow, two for the wrists, about three for the knees… was it two across the chest or three?"

After about six minutes of talking to myself I manage to get on all of my belts and head back downstairs.

…

I walk back into the living room and find my father standing at the fire adjusting the logs with the poker,

"I uhh… I got cleaned up dad… you said we had something important to talk about?"

My father beckons me closer to the fireplace but still doesn't face me, I step to his side though I'm still unable to see his face from my angle…

My father takes in a breath and begins to speak: "Son, I assume you know why I need to speak with you?"

"Uhh, you need to speak to me about what happened on the dig site yesterday?"

"Exactly; yesterday while you and Fox were patrolling the grounds and keeping Grimm far away from the workers, and yet a pack of Creeps infiltrated the camp, trapped the workers, caused Oum knows how much damage to the machinery and resources… and you two were supposed to prevent that."

I lowered my head and went to speak but he indicated he wasn't finished so I braced for more heat;

"But given the circumstance of where the Grimm were _under_ the camp to begin with there was no way you could have seen them coming from the perimeter but despite this both you and Fox had near immediate response to the situation and assisted the unarmed personal get to safety, single handedly fought off the Grimm with only your basic weapons after the mobile armory blew, and the two of you took out an alpha creep that was rampaging through the camp,

You and Grey Fox risked everything to protect the lives of your fellow man;"

My father finally turns to face me and I see his face with a smile that could melt the coldest heiress and he finished his sentence:

"Son; you are a true philanthropist."

With a flick of his wrist and a slight of hand he relives me of the family tomahawk and return it to a small shelf on the mantle above the fireplace and it retracts into the wall opening a hidden door; he places his hand and my shoulder and guides me inside.

It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust but once I can see I find myself inside a fairly large room with the left and right wall covered in shelves holding metal and dust and tools and ammo of all sorts, and in the back of the room opposite the wall we entered I see a blacksmith workshop with the finest equipment gleaming b the molten metal of which weapons are born, my jaw nearly hits the floor as I falter in trying to find the words:

"F.. f… f… Forge…" is all I manage to stammer out as my father laughs heartily, "Take a moment to breath son, I know I was just as flabbergasted when I was brought to the family forge so many decades ago… and now it's your turn to build your weapon; you understand why this tradition is important to us I assume?"

I manage to mentally pull myself together and take another few steps into the room and try to speak; "Th… the tradition of the Cortello family is once the child has proven themselves a philanthropist, a lover of humanity, they step forward to return the family tomahawk to the mantle and return with they're own weapon; a weapon not used in anger, not used in vengeance, but in the pursuit of making the world a safer place for man, and faunas alike."

My father joyously laughs once more and clicks on a light to better illuminate the room, why he didn't do that before I don't know.

"Right you are my boy, though the passage never mentioned faunas… we should update it so that it does!" My father continues to laugh in the way only a strong elder figure can as I marvel over the collection of equipment lined across the shelves, and its was free game on what I could use to build my weapon with…

"I made sure we had only the finest pieces available for your big day, I even had Jarrod send special parts from Atlas just for you."

I snap out of my gear-headed stupor at the mention of my older brothers name, "Whoa Jarrod sent these? So that means these are military grade stuff from the Schnee R&D department!"

"You bet sport; he said he included extra special axe pieces should you choose to also follow that sub-tradition, but your free to build a weapon that isn't an axe like your sister before you."

 _[Ain't exposition fun?_ **Shut up Rene.]**

I had thought long and hard about this day many times in the past, wondering whether I should build an axe as my father and brother had; or take my own weapon like my sister, I'd lay awake at night pondering which way I should go and often talked to Fox late into the night about it, until today had no idea what I would end up doing but standing before the warm glow of the fire I knew my answer.

"This is where I take my leave and leave you to your creative process; I will be in the kitchen, I bought a cake."

Ohh cake… I hope its chocolate.

My father leaves me alone in the forge and take a moment to observe the different pieces and tools to see the possible weapons I could build, I swear I would have spent days in there were it not for the fact I had known my weapon nearly from the moment I stepped inside, and because I want to hurry up and get some cake.

I gathered all the pieces I needed and laid them across the workbench in front of me and got to work.

Within an hour I had managed to craft my weapon and it was glorious; it was an axe in the style of a splitting maul that collapsed in the center of the handle and folded in on itself where it took the form of an modified XM16E1 (the patriot model of an M16) with a bayonet that could be placed on the gun barrel or at the opposite end of the handle whilst it was an axe, it had a double drum magazine while in gun form to allow me to have one hundred rounds of 45mm ammo to unleash unto any Grimm that was foolhardy enough to attack me or anyone under my protection, thought in its axe form I had to replace the clip with a standard magazine lest the weapon be wildly counter balanced, but I could use the shot to add more power to its swing as an axe.

Satisfied with my creation I dubbed 'Little Boss' I holstered it in axe form beside clarity and grabbed some magazines and dust cartridges and stuffed the into different belt pockets for safekeeping.

I then left the forge and headed to the kitchen.

I didn't get to far before I ended up running into Smithers, wait why is he here?

"Hey kid, I guess your wondering why I'm here,"

Oh cool don't even gotta ask.

"I just wanted to thank you and your friend for saving me back at the site; but I also wanted to give you something I found there, hang on where'd I put it?"

After a few moments of rummaging around through his pockets Smith hands my a small round piece of plastic with some words written on it, "Outside Heaven casino VIP lounge chip? Why the hell would one of these be at the dig site?"

Smithers shrugs but gives his two cents on the matter; "I have no idea how it got there but I found it in the cave those creeps burst out from, and I got to thinking while I was down there; how does a Grimm with no arms dig a cavern underground conveniently big enough for them and their queen and little to nothing else?"

It took me a moment to mentally tie together everything Smith just brought up, holy shit.

"Are you saying this Outside Heaven place attempted to sabotage my fathers dig site? But why would they do something like that?"

"Well kid my best guess is they don't like the competition; your father's company is one of the leading providers in dust and he has the added advantage of not having Faunus constantly trying to destroy his company due to his philanthropic ways and his support of faunus rights, and from what I've heard about this casino thought is that most of their profits don't come from the slots, but from illegal fire arms and dust trade."

I couldn't even begin to comprehend the idea of people going out of there way to put others in life threatening danger for profit… and for such a thing to happen to the men and women I work alongside and work to protect.

So many emotions burned through me in a single moment; fear, sadness, loathing, regret, but it finally settled on rage; not only did these f**kers put my co-workers at risk, they nearly destroyed my fathers lively hood, and worst of all; they put my best friend in the hospital where he has to go through his personal living hell of putting his life in the hands of strangers with knives and drugs.

"I'm sorry I had to bring this up kid but I thought you'd want to know, now I gotta go back to the facility to help with the clean up, best of luck kid." And with that Smith leaves me in the foyer with nothing but a new emotion I haven't felt since I first woke up two years before…

Nothing was going to stop me now, I was going to take justice into my own hand and enact revengeance on ~ **Grumble~** oh right… I haven't eaten for nearly two days.

"Grant my boy what's taking you so long? If you keep me waiting I might just have to eat this cake alone."

Okay, I know I just made a whole anger speech about taking vengeance for my family and friends who were wronged but do you honestly expect me to be able to fight on an empty stomach?

"Coming dad!"

Rest assured thought; tonight the journey will begin and I will burn my warpath of retribution.

I will fight.

* * *

 **Well it took forever but I'm glad I could take the chance to make things a bit better.**

 _If that's your idea of better I fear for my trailer._

 **Oh don't worry, your trailer will be fine,** ** _Rushuna._**

 _Ok good I… wait who!? That's not my name!_

 **Well I'm afraid it is now; it fits your colour better, you are Russian green after all.**

 _Uggh fine; I'll go with it, but let me go by 'Rush' for short or I'm out._

 **No problem Rush,**

 **Well the two people who are actually reading this, I'll see you for the next chapter.**


	2. Trailer Russian Green

An Axe to GRiND Trailer 2

 **Well this took forever and a half, but its finally done: the second Trailer for my RWBY fan-team is up!**

 _About friggin time; its been months for Oum's sake; MONTHS._

 **I know I know but between my computer crashing and having to pay a bunch of money to have it fixed only to learn I lost a majority of my programs so then having to pay for a new Office subscription I wasn't exactly in a happy mindset to jump back into writing.**

 _I… can't really argue with that…_

 **Good now shut up and get in character, This Is 'An Axe to GRiND Trailer two: Rushuna**

"Okay lower me down."

"I'm trying, the winch is jammed; how much do you weigh?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!?"

"Well it only seems to jam when you rappel down so logically speaking…"

"Look just get the thing working, and on a side note you of all people should know how much I weigh."

"Ooh good point, alright here we go."

Alright; since the writer is still terrible at starting a story allow me to catch you up to speed on the off chance you actually give a f**k.

( **Cut it out Rush, were trying to be PG.** _Why do you think I censored it?)_

My name is Rushuna Silverburg, and I'm part of the crime syndicate know as _The Diamond Dames;_ yeah I know that sounds more like the name of a strip-club but I don't have any input with the PR director so I have to put up with it.

It didn't really matter that much though as my occupation within the company involved being subtle and not advertising one's self; I am a thief, and we aren't talking about bumping into people to steal wallets (though I will admit that's an easy way to earn a quick buck) I break into banks, jewelry stores, dust warehouses you name it, if it has anything of value I've probably broken in… so long as it's in Vacuo at least.

Well I know I say 'I' broke in to all those places but I suppose I should mention I wasn't alone; I have a partner named Rail who would always go with me, whether we were robbing an armored transport or shopping for swimwear we were inseparable, but I mean that's how partners act right?

Anyway that gets some exposition out of the way so how about some actual plot writer?

( **I'm getting to it; keep your pants on, sheesh…)**

It was another blistering hot day as per usual where Rail and I intended to just stay in bed all day as it was too friggin hot to do anything, but around quarter after eleven my scroll buzzed with a message and given there was only two people on Remnant who have my number and one of them was asleep in the bunk above mine it meant the boss needed us. I rolled out of bed and shook the support to wake up Rail, in response she rolls off her bunk and falls to the cushions laid out on the floor… I still don't know why she does or why she insists on being top; she's a fairly tall woman standing 6ft 6'' but so long as she doesn't hurt herself I guess its fine.

"Oum dammit what the hell does she want us for now?"

"I really don't know Rail, but frankly I think it would be better to see what she wants us to do and get it over with." I toss her one of her shirts as I grab my equipment and get ready to see the Dom, and before you ask: no I don't mean 'Don', another confusing choice of naming but again; I really don't care.

So I Grab my Tonfas, my green hoodie and camo pants with dust sewn in; it works like octocamo by matching the colours of whatever I'm pressed against, this shit was expensive but it was worth it and has gotten Rail and me through many stealth incursions.

Once Rail is awake enough to function properly she gets her outfit on; she wears some grey skinny jeans that really don't leave much to the imagination in the best ways, and a rust coloured Chinese styled dress shirt with a low cut v-neck that I won't begin to describe because I'd end up gushing about how beautiful she is for hours; I don't know how she doesn't have a boyfriend with a body like that… whoop losing focus here, uhh after getting our 'work clothes' on we work our way to the top floor where the Dom's office is, we have to take the stairs because the elevator is still shot and even though we could afford to hire somebody to fix it everybody seems to think it's a bad idea, why is it crime syndicates that have plenty of money can never afford to fix elevators or drills? My best guess is they keep it broken because it helps the illusion that this isn't the home of a successful crime syndicate but just another rundown apartment complex in the backwoods of this shitty desert.

By the time we get to the top floor I'm already sweating both from the effort of walking up thirteen floors and because as stated earlier: it's pretty friggin hot today, I wouldn't be so annoyed by it if not for the fact Rail always looked like she just walked out of a perfume commercial and was spotless; even if all she was wearing was some random shirt and the same pre-torn jeans she looked amazing…

I realise I probably look like I'm ogling her and quickly stop before something weird gets written and I knock on the door to the Dom's office and she tells us to step in; "Good morning Rushuna, Aralia."

I forgot to mention because it wasn't really important whatsoever but that's Rails actual name, it's just that the boss is the only one who uses our actual names and not the four letter versions we stick with.

"Good morning Ma'am; I assume whatever you want us to do is pretty important if it requires making us leave our air-conditioning."

I nudge Rail in the arm to try and get her to knock off the attitude before she gets us in trouble but the Dom seemed to dismiss it as soon as it was said.

"Actually Aralia it is quite important; we have been contracted by _S_ once again and he wishes to employee your unique services in particular; he wants the two of you to run a 'virtuous mission" as he puts it."

A virtuous mission, I had heard the term before; it's been used to describe mission focused on a stealth insertion into enemy territory to extract information or persons of importance while doing as little damage as possible, this was right up our alley then.

"So wait does this mean we have to find a scientist and get him away from all the bees?"

As those words leave Rails lips I find the palm of my hand firmly connecting with my forehead as it so often does after one of her weird references, it's the only thing about her I can't stand because they range from last week's blockbuster to an obscure Japanese cartoon from the eighties and they're rarely, if ever, relevant.

Regardless the Dom taps a few buttons on her scroll and the lights dim while a small projector starts up; once its warmed up and focused it reveals an image of an armoured train bearing the Schnee Dust Company logo… umm, "W... wait; are you sending us to rob an armoured train loaded with robot guards, security lasers, and who knows what other deadly security measures?!" My concern must have been pretty obvious as Rail grabs my shoulder and puts my head to her chest to calm me down, I have no idea why she thinks this would help but it usually does, just something about being so close and the warmth of her chest and the soft beating of her heart… probably some kind of psychological thing.

"I think what Rush means is: are you asking the two of us to do an eight-man mission alone or do you have something else in mind boss lady?" One of these days I gotta ask her why the Dom is okay with the way she speaks to her, at this point I gently slip out of her grasp and try to look professional for the Dom… that ship has probably sailed long before today though.

After adjusting her glasses, the boss continues; "Actually Aralia you and Rushuna aren't going to be directly involved in attacking the train but you will play a part in it; you are going to the station it is set to arrive at and hacking into the servers and erasing the schedule so when the train fails to arrive it won't raise as much concern."

"I'm sorry ma'am; but did you say we won't be 'directly involved'? What's that supposed to mean if you don't mind my asking?"

"Your concern is noted Rushuna, while don't have every detail the gist is our benefactor 'S' is having us assist another group he funds in a job, the other team will attack the train and steal what they can and you two are meant to disable security and hide the attack so in the end both parties escape undetected." After that obvious exposition she brings up another image of a train map and schedule for… Forever fall?

"Whoa wait a second ma'am; that says forever fall, isn't that all the way over by Vale on the other side of the continent, and if I'm reading this schedule right the train shows up in less than ten hours; Vale is already a eight hour flight and then getting transport to this station could take anywhere from" Before I'm able to continue Rail grabs me and does that thing again apparently trying to shut me up.

"I'm with Rush on this on boss lady; this is going to be cutting it hella close; I mean we usually have at least a few hours to prepare for something like this."

The Dom shuts off the projector and brings the lights back on while I struggle to breath as Rail still hasn't let me go, "I'm aware this is sudden and quite a lot to ask of you two but this mission could be what this syndicate needs to move from petty thievery to real work."

After that I manage to finally wiggle out of Rails grasp and breath I quickly write down the details we got from the Dom on my scroll as she and Rail discuss the specifics of our transportation and how we'll be smuggled into the shipping yard, while I checked details I also manage to find something I haven't actually noticed before; the letter with the details of the heist actually had a return address, I never really put much thought into it but I never knew where it was the man who keeps sending us money and jobs to do actually lives… well whatever; I'm sure that won't be important to know.

Within the hour we get to the airport and board an airship heading for Vale… nothing much happens during this part other than this one incident where Rail got into a fight with some drunken jackass with some kinda gear-sword thing but that didn't really go anywhere because plot I guess.

After the flight finally ended we made our way to some run down looking warehouse on the outskirts of the city to meet our contact who was supposed to get us to forever fall, once we were inside I noted the warehouse was pretty much empty save for some rusted cargo containers and a few guys wearing black tuxedos and red ties, I guess this place doesn't believe in business casual.

"Well then you two young ladies must be the pawns she sent to clean up for the fleabags!"

At hearing this voice I whip around trying to figure out how he got behind me so quietly but get distracted by his attire; he wears some kinda white long coat and a black bowler hat, kinda like a Bond villain or something.

"Yeah that's us, and that would make you mister Delarge I assume?" I restrain myself from face-palming again as it would look unprofessional but gently elbow Rail in the ribs, odds are this guy isn't in the mood for her strange references.

"Finally someone who watches some classics, all these clowns like to watch are buddy cop movies,"

I stand corrected, the tow of them go at it for a couple of minutes about their favorite movies and symbolism and al that crap until I clear my throat and motion towards a clock hanging on a nearby support beam that shows us we've only got about an hour to get to Forever fall.

"Right right I suppose you two do need to go get ready to fix the furball's mess, alright I'll have one of the men fly you in with a VTOL and you can get your end tied up," He begins to walk away but stops after a few steps and looks over his shoulder; "Oh, and tell Suzy I said 'Hi'." And with that he moved behind some crates and that's the last we saw of him.

Once we climb in to the aforementioned VTOL I rerun that conversation through my head and I voice my concerns to Rail; "So when he was saying 'fleabags' do you think he was referring to the White Fang?"

"Probably but what of it? Don't tell me you hate Faunas now."

"Wh.. No! Of course not! I'm just concerned because I mean; we steal money and dust here and there but these guys are hardcore killers and thieves, I just don't want to get in too deep here I mean _HMMPH"_ Before I keep going Rail does the thing again, granted it was a lot more gently this time and she seemed to be genuinely trying to console me this time.

"Look Rush I get it; this is quite possibly the most stupid thing we've ever been tasked with, and working with borderline terrorist would unnerve anybody but you know what?"

"Whuf?" My reply is muffled for two obvious reasons.

"You've got me; and so long as I got a heartbeat and a shotgun shell I won't let anything happen to you."

I couldn't say anything, I was at a loss for words; Rail had always been there for me but I never fully realised how much she _care;_ she thought of us as more than comrades and so did I but I think this is the first time either of us have just come out and said it…

I find myself clinging tighter to her now as we continue the hug/smother we've done so many times before… I didn't want to ever let go.

After about half an hour we're dropped off at the perimeter of the facility, we synchronize our watches for thirty minutes: that was how long we had before the automated system would notice the train isn't arriving and something's up.

The area wasn't heavily guarded as this was a low priority station usually just used to move crates from one train to another but you'd think today they'd be taking more caution… well no use looking a gift horse in the mouth, after letting a guard pass we burn through the fence and reach the side of the building where Rail helps me up to a vent cover that I pull off and climb inside; the vent is thankfully large enough for me to turn and hoist Rail in too and close the grate before we're seen.

Twenty three minutes remain as we work our ways through the vent moving as quickly as we can without making too much noise, it takes a moment for us to actually figure out where we need to go to find the mainframe as the vents don't seem to come with a map but once we figure out the direction Rail sets off ahead of me and I follow behind… I'm starting to see why she likes wearing skinny jeans.

With eighteen minutes left we find the servers and Rail sets up the winch so I can rappel down and we get to the beginning of this chapter because the writer thinks starting in the middle and then flashing back is a good idea.

 **(Shut up Rush.)**

 _(Never.)_

After making my point that Rail would know I'm not that heavy given she's the one who lifted me up less than ten minutes ago she lowers me down about fifteen feet to the floor and I unhook and try to hack into the mainframe when I hit a snag; the system is looked with a fingerprint scanner… shit.

"Rail we got a problem,"

"Don't tell me; retinal scanner?"

"Fingerprint actually."

"Well f**k… how much time do we have?"

"Fifteen minutes, not enough time to hack around it… Oum dammit what are we going to do!?"

"Ffff uhh… wait I've got an idea!"

I hear Rail shuffle back around in the vents and move somewhere, I have no idea where the hell she was going but I hoped she knew what she was doing…

…

Five minutes later and she still hasn't responded to any of my attempt to raise her. While she was gone I tried to see if I could hack into the system anyway but fingerprint scanners are a huge pain in the ass… After six minutes and three attempts my scroll pings and I notice a message from Rail and quickly open it up; attached are two pictures: one of a man whose tag said he was the Foreman and the other image was his hand, we had access.

I quickly study the details of the hand to get a focus on the fingerprints and then I get to work; I focus as hard as I can and feel the subtle tingle of my semblance pulsing through my hand as it shifts to match the prints of the foreman, after it takes effect I press my hand onto the scanner on the console and after a few seconds it chimes indicating I've gained clearance and I get to work, I have about five minutes to re-write the data to cover up a missing high priority cargo train. I type as fast as I can move from file to file to cut any trace I can and with about a minute left I hit the ENTER key and the system accepts the new data, I feel a rush of relief as I had apparently been holding my breath for about three minutes without realizing and exhale nearly passing out, once my breathing has settled and I'm actually able to think straight which made me have a realization: in order to get the images Rail must have attacked and grabbed the foreman and people are probably going to notice as Rail isn't exactly subtle when it comes to fighting… oh f**k.

I try to raise Rail on by pinging her scroll but she doesn't ping back and I start to panic because well if you've actually been paying attention up to this point you know that there's a lot that can go wrong and terrible so I think my freak-out is justified. I grab onto the rope and pull myself up as quickly as possible to get into the vents and try to find Rail in any way I can; sounds of combat, alarms, stupid references, ANYTHING at this point!

After hauling ass through the vents I find a Rail-sized hole and assume this is where she dropped onto that poor foreman and I drop out, I roll when I land and pull my Tonfas when I land out of habit but quickly stow them and tuck myself into a dark corner and let the dust hewn into my hoodie adapt, I try to raise Rail again on the scroll in the hopes she actually replies, it feels like an eternity when I finally hear the return ping a few seconds later and I set to work on figuring out her position; I managed to download the buildings map and use it to figure out where Rail is…

Oh f**k me she's in the main f**king terminal and she's got security trying to find her.

I stuff my scroll back into my pocket and start running to the security station down the hall in hopes of calling off the hunt or at least distract them, once I actually find the room I find another fingerprint scanner but it was simple enough to get through this time now that I had a hand from the foreman… Ok making that joke physically hurt.

Once I was in I went to work finding the security console and seeing how deep in we were; luckily Rail hadn't actually triggered any alarms, it seems they were just being cautious because the foreman hasn't been responding to the radio… OH idea!

I begin sifting through some security records and recent files to see if I could find some footage of the foreman speaking, once I get a decent quality clip I study his voice for a moment and get to work; focusing my energies and after a few moments of an annoying tingling in the back of my neck I check my reflection on the computer screen to find myself the spitting image of the foreman, I take a quick test sentence to make sure got the voice right: "Attention workers attention; I am a tool, that is all." Perfect.

I boot up the intercom system and a projection of the foreman activates in all the main rooms, once I get the attention of the workers I begin the cover story; "would somebody mind telling me why you're all acting as though there's been an infestation of creeps." One of the workers in the loading area pressed a button by the intercom to respond: "We we're just worried sir; you weren't responding to the radio."

"What am I not allowed to turn that thing off for a minute while I'm in the bathroom? Look I'm fine so everybody just return to your business, we got work to do." The workers glance at each other but get back to work and I shut off the camera and quickly un-disguise; I really hate having to do that because it just feels friggin weird but I can say it doesn't get results.

I return my attention to trying to find my hidden partner and try to message her again; 'Got the heat off, where the hell are you?' It took her a moment to reply and anther three for me to figure out what she wrote, she uses numbers in place of letters sometimes for reasons I don't really care to figure out but it gets hard to understand since she uses the number eight in about six different ways somehow, once I figure out what she said I just tell her to make her way to the vent we entered and that I would meet her there.

Once that's all taken care of I pull up a filing cabinet and crawl into the vents and make my way to the edge of the facility, about halfway there my watch beeps; I ignore this as we already finished the job and keep crawling but after another few moments I can't help but feel as though the vents were shaking slightly… oh f**k.

"Rail pick up dammit: the train wasn't stopped, and a giant unregistered armored train is going to raise an alarm, what the hell did the white fang do!?"

"Shit I don't know, but you gotta get out of the vents: they have some kinda security lockout of the alarms are triggered, you'll have to hoof it."

"Are you insane they could see me if I tried that!"

"I know but if a giant armored train with a bunch of combat ready robots shows up a teenage girl is going to be the least conspicuous thing in here, and besides if you need to you could just hit 'em with your tonfas or something right?"

She had a point, I quickly agree with her and hang up as I drop out of the nearest opening and start running; by now the rumble of a train engine is easily audible and I can hear some of the workers asking about if anything was scheduled for arrival, turns out Rail was right as I was able to walk right past two deck-hands unnoticed while they tried to figure out what was going on. I kept making my way to the end of the facility occasionally diving behind a crate or under some pipe work to avoid some confused workers trying to figure out what was going on; I guess they really rely on digital schedules because it seems like no one had the idea to write down 'big Schnee train arriving today' somewhere, as I make it into the main loading area where we first entered I spot Rail waving me over to a door on the far side of the track, I try to get close but the train comes screeching into the station and grinds to a halt just barley avoiding an overhanging crane.

About now is when hell decides to break loose: before anyone can say anything the stations alarms set off and it alerts that security drones have been dispatched (on a side note: our intelligence said nothing about this place having bots so this is going to be a bit harder than anticipated) and a bunch of workers start to leave the room, probably hoping the automated security can clear things up until the foreman and conductor can settle this… oh boy.

Just to further complicate matters a bunch of robots start jumping off of the train too and end up in a South Vacuoian stand-off, it looks like a cheesy sci-fi movie trailer when I notice a black blur shoot past and something hits one of the robots causing both sides to open fire; bullets flying everywhere bouncing off this and that and just making this a damn nightmare; I hear somebody trying to shout over the gunfire and alarms on the intercom but I can't make out a damn word.

All these damned sounds together culminating in an orchestra of f**k, the ground shaking from all this shit I felt like I was going to die from the migraine alone, I had to get out of here but I had no idea how; I was pinned down and I couldn't hear myself think…

Wait how did I get to the other side of the room?

I honestly don't know what the hell just happened but I ended up on the other side of the track and now I'm behind a shipping crate, after I come to my senses I realize I'm not alone behind this crate; there was a young woman around my age wearing a bow in her long black hair… wait hold on ( _Are you serious?)_

 **(What now?)**

 _('What now' he asks; your saying I meet one of the MAIN F**KING CHARACTERS IN MY TRAILER!? That's bullcrap! I mean seriously? SERIOUSLY?)_

 **(Oh come on its just some flavour text to spice things up and give some development; also all you do is meet her, it's not like I'm going to ship you with her or something; a lot of people do that with fanfictions but I'm not, even though some hot girl on girl would probably bring in some views…)**

 _(You try it and I swear I will break the trans-dimensional barrier and shove a crowbar up your_ **WHOA ok jeebus it was a joke…)**

After yelling at the author for a moment I asked the girl 'who the hell are you' and 'why the hell are you here', after being taken aback by my blunt assertion she tells me her name is Blake (as though you didn't friggin guess) and she was on the train when things went to shit so she bailed off when it got to the station; for the sake of the plot I believe her and thank her for getting me to the other side of the track and closer to Rail.

"Alright Blake; there's still about twenty robots between us and the door so how do you think we should do this?"

She takes a quick look at our surroundings and replies quickly, "Your weapons there; contact shotgun tonfas right?" I pull them off my back and unfurl them as an answer, "Alright then; you'll notice most of the robots switched to blade mode, probably to avoid injuring the their owners; if I can get up above them and draw their attention they'd need a second to switch weapons; that should give you time to disable some of them with some well placed hits."

"Sounds insane but as long as you can keep yourself from getting shot long enough I think we can work with this." Blake nods and leaps on top of the crate we were using for cover, damn she's nimble, flexible too from the looks of it… gah no time to evaluate my temporary partner, got to be ready for this.

After pulling out her kusarigama-gun thing she used it like a grappling hook and swings to the ceiling and starts circling the drones which gets the attention of the darker models from the train right away but the factory drones take a bit longer to notice, they probably have different security settings or something, as the robots retract their blades I take the opportunity and leap out from behind cover and bring my blaster right into the nearest faceplate I can find and the oh so satisfying sound of the pressure pate clicks on the end of my weapon and the drones head is torn to shreds as the shrapnel tears through the metal and wiring with ease, I then move to the next drone in as quick a succession as I can blasting a hole through its stomach disabling it, I manage to destroy one more by hitting it in the back of the head before the other robots start to catch on, luckily Blake notices their waning attention and drops done onto one of them impaling it with her sword, I follow her example and switch to the secondary function of my weapons; katar gauntlets, I take the blade and plunge it into the chest of another robot and use it as a shield while firing a few shells into the last few robots, I lose myself for a few moments as the pure destruction and mayhem becomes almost overwhelming but I manage to regain some composure as the ground underneath the last five drones erupts from under them, after some dust settles all that's left is bits of scrap and a large hole with Rail standing in the center holding her shovel.

"If you two are done playing with these toys I really think we should get out of here."

"Right, we've done what we were paid to do, and I'm assuming Blake did too."

Blake doesn't seem to react to my comment by based on the twitchiness of her bow it got to her, it wasn't hard to put two and two together and figure out what she was doing here but honestly I had a hard time actually getting mad at her, I don't know if it's because she's a cute little kitty or because I watched her trailer and know what she just did.

( **Cut that out!)**

 _(Never.)_

After we get far enough away from the facility we say goodbye to the cameo and catch a ride back home.

After another long flight back to Vacuo we make our way back home so I can finally get back to sleep, I tell you after all that shit we had to go through today from flying halfway across the continent to the f**king headache I'm going to have for the next week from all the damn noise… _sigh_ at least all the shit is done and over why is the apartment building gone?

Oh f**K what is going on!? We just turned around the corner of the street and there's just a smoking pile of rubble where the building once stood. Before I even really had a chance to fully comprehend what was happening Rail bolts to what I now realise is a fire engine, I couldn't tell at first because I was kinda in shock but I now notice all the emergency vehicles around; one of them an ambulance where one of the other girls who we work with was sitting, I recognized her as Alina, she was another D.D like us but I didn't know much else about her.

Rail was already talking to her, well more shaking her brains out than talking but I manage age to stop her from before she liquefies the girl. Once she was able to draw breath again she explained what happened; around the time we finally got to Forever Fall and started the job some thugs broke in and started wrecking up the place Godfather style (oh god now I'm making references), at first it seemed like just a rival gang so the boss told them to fight back but these guys had some top frickin hardware; the Dom told them to evacuate while she held them back, I personally haven't ever seen her fight but I'm guessing that dust fused cat-of-nine isn't just a decoration…

It was around that point when Rail starts to tense up and franticly looking around for something Alina continues: "She fought them off as long as she could but they had destroyed so much of the structure the building just fell around them…" at this point she takes a pause to catch her breath and shudders, my guess is she was still inside when the building started to fall… oh no…

Before I have a chance to ask her about the Dom Rail punches the ambulance she's sitting on and nearly knocks it over, I have to dive and catch the poor girl; "Rail what the he-" Rail angrily cuts me off and grabs her; "What happened to her?! Where is she!?"

Rail was near seething at this point and I feared she was about to seriously hurt Alina and I had to act; I grab Rails arm and swing myself up onto her back and pull back on her arm so she has to drop Alina, my luck runs out at this point and Rail pulls me off and throws me to the ground, I feel my aura drain after the hit but I pull myself together before Rail keeps freaking out.

Once I actually right myself however Rail is gone, it takes me a minute to figure out where she went but then I notice her standing by another ambulance, I quickly make sure Alina isn't broken and make my way over to Rail.

I try to move closer carefully not knowing if Rail was still having a freak out or not, I mean I understand she's concerned about the Dom, we all are, but she's taking it really personally for some reason. Once I actually get close enough to see the inside of the ambulance I notice Rail sitting beside the bed/gurney thing trying not to cry but smiling, I climb in and confirm that it's the Dom laying in the bed, one hand on Rails and the other holding a small can of beer.

"Jeebuz, Dom are you alright?" is all I can manage to say, she looks like she just fought through a hundred Ursa and a concrete building…

"Please Rushuna; it will take a bit more than a squad of thugs collapsing a building on me to slow me down." She winces slightly when she sits up to take a drink but otherwise she does look relatively uninjured but Rail tries to stop her and get her to lie down again; "You say that when your leg is broken in three places, please stop trying to act like nothing can hurt you."

Rail is nearly in tears again as the Dom rubs her head trying to calm her down… hang on; "Dom, is Rail acting like this because your…" I find myself chocked on the last words as thought even thinking them would insult her but despite my weird pause the Dom nods and finishes for me: "Her mother,"

Plot twist.

"I never brought this up as I felt it was unnecessary, that and Aralia wanted to be seen as another one of the girls, not the all-important daughter of the boss so we never really discussed it; I always assumed I'd have to wait for Rail to propose to someone to need to reveal myself as her mother but I suppose it's quite obvious now."

"Just a bit." By this point Rail seemed to be pulling herself together but was obviously still shaken.

"Mom, you have to let me go after them; they need to pay for what they did to you and the Diamond Damsels."

The two begin to have a somewhat one-sided argument while I notice something on the table beside the Dom and I take a look; it a poker chip from a casino called Outside Heaven and on the back is says 'VIP lounge' so I guess it's an entrance token… the name of the casino sounds familiar, I grab my bag and rummage around until I find the envelope that came from _S_ and check the net using my scroll; sure enough the addresses match and it seems he sent this from the casino, "Uhh I hate to interrupt this family moment but where did you find this poker chip?"

The Dom silences Rail with a gesture and turns to me like nothing was happening and answers: "It was in the coat of one of those bastards, I'm guessing you already have an idea of what that means?"

"The guy who set up the job that went south before we even showed up… S did this, he set up to make us leave and I'm guessing he had some other jobs set too, once everyone was gone he sent in those f**kers to try and kill you so he wouldn't have to pay the middle man."

"That sounds probable, I never thought that bastard would try something like this but I suppose that was the intention."

I realise what's about to happen and carefully pull the Dom aside as Rail nearly flips the ambulance with her seismic freakout, she runs around and hits some stuff for a few minutes before coming back over to us when she was calm… relatively speaking.

"I have to go and bash their f**king skulls in!"

I figured it was time I put forth my two cents and get this damn chapter closer to finished: "Wait, Rail you should stay with the Dom; you guys need to rally the other girls and figure out what to do next but if I go I can ride over there and sneak around and find something to get that jackass arrested or something."

It looked like Rail was going to protest but before she got a chance the Dom spoke up: "Rushuna; if you're serious about this then let me warn you; _S_ is a man with many connections and his hold in the casino may be dangerous but if you're willing to do this for us all," she paused to reach for something and handed it to me "then you take the word of the Diamonds with you." It was her cat-of-nine whip, I had never actually seen her use it but based on the leather binding and faint pulse of dust I could feel the power it held.

I gave it a flick and coiled it and hooked onto my belt, "Ma'am, Rail; I won't let you down." After Rail gives me a near bone-crushing hug I set off to find a ride to patch, I had a long way to go to get to that damn island and an even longer way to figure out how I'm going to bring this f**ker down, but right now none of that mattered, all that mattered was vengeance; I wasn't going to let down the only family I ever knew.

I will fight.

 **Okay; that took WAY longer than expected, but I'm honestly glad I kept going at this despite losing like four drafts to either computer failures or just not liking the thing but I think this works, what about you Rush?**

 _…_

 **Rush?**

 _Oh sorry I was just being dead, you know because it took so long I died of old age._

 **Oh shut up, you know all the shit that happened to the computer and the documents and I still worked to get this thing finished so deal.**

 _Yeah yeah whatever, just try not to take a year to get the next chapter up again._

 **Hey nine months isn't a year!**

 _Yes that three month difference makes you look much more competent._

 **Shut up Rush.**

 **Anyway sorry it took so long for this chapter to go up but now that that development hell is done I can get to work on the next 'trailer' and hopefully it will be easier as I have a pretty good base set up for it, until next time.**

 _Don't hold your breath kids._


	3. Trailer Navy

An Axe to GRiND trailer 3

 **[So Rush isn't here right now so I don't know why I'm even starting with this dialog… uhh I guess I can just say that this chapter will be quite different compared to the original as Natalie basically got completely rewritten so… yeah…**

 **Trailer three.]**

* * *

Deep breath; inhale… exhale… inhale… exhale.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the one you've all been waiting for; 'The Sea in the Sky' Navi!"

I take one more deep breath to hold my concentration as the lights angle to spotlight me standing atop the center ring support, the crowd below cheers as the lights twist and spin with different colours, I block all of it out as I need focus…

Inhale… exhale…

I jump away from the pole and into the air, thirty feet from the ground and I feel the air around me as I begin to freefall. The crowd below falls silent like usual and helps me concentrate, as I continue to fall I finally exhale and feel as though water is running down my back, knowing this as the sign its working I bring my legs up to my chest and wrap my arms around them as I brace for the next part, another deep breath and I spilt my mind to focus on the two tasks I have to manage.

As I near the ground even faster than before I wait for my moment; it's always best to wait as it raises the tension; that's what they told me.

Less than ten feet to the ground I focus half my mind and from the ground below a torrent of water rises like a pillar; I hit the water and sink down until my toes graze the floor, I unfurl myself and force more pressure into the water so it can lift me while still in this form, as I near the top of the liquid obelisk I tilt my head skyward and take a moment to focus on the water and slow down the current, once my face passes through the water and to the surface I let out the breath I had held, once my full body has left the water I spin on my heel with my arms outstretched to lease a hail of droplets out around me; this is when the spotlight focus on me and the light reflects off my skin and through me glints onto the water in the air and creates a web of hundreds of thin rainbows, by this point the crowd was in an uproar of applause and cheers while they marvelled in the spectrum, I allow myself a brief moment to enjoy the joy on the people's faces but I quickly set my focus back to the water and myself as the water droplets I had cast fell to the ground, I take in another breath and bring the pillar up beneath me to form into a large orb of water and I sink down into the middle, once inside I shut of the second focus and the rush once again reels through my back as I deactivate my semblance and my skin returns from the metal composition I had held since the jump.

Once the metal was gone I did a quick lap in the orb and then centered myself for the final piece of the performance, I focus as hard as I believe to be physically possible and the water around me bursts into a wave; I stop the water in the air and I break off pieces of the water to form more them all into smaller orbs about a foot wide, after manipulating them in a few arcs and dives I line them all up in a row and have them descend into a makeshift staircase and I walk from one bubble to another letting the orb behind me burst and fall to the ground as a puddle, once I reach the ground I take a bow as the crowd continues to cheer and I leave through the door to the residence area; once out of the tent I flop face first into the cold soggy dirt and pass out.

* * *

I awake in a warm tub as usual after a performance, I pull myself out of the tub and dry out and leave the bathroom connected to my room so I can grab some clothes, around this time my roommate returns;

"Great show Navi, but I thi- OH GEEBUZ warn me next time your nekid!"

"I'm not naked Thrush; I still have my swimsuit on."

"*Half* of your suit hon."

"Oh, it must have fallen off in the bathroom."

"How do you not notice when you're uhh… 'uncovered'?"

"Honestly after being metal for that long everything is kinda numb for about half an hour so I guess noticing something like that is harder."

"Right, well as much as I enjoy your orbs you need to get dressed."

I choose not to respond it her intentionally suggestive comment and finish getting some dry clothes on; a navy blue one piece reminiscent of similar ones used in Mistral schools, my dyed leather jacket and a pair of shorts just so I have more than a swimsuit on; apparently some people find that weird.

"Ok you can look now Thrush, so you were saying something before weren't you?"

She turns to face me while holding her chin apparently trying to remember what it was she came to say; "Right well: I think you should talk to Elise about shortening the routine; you can't keep going out like that and collapsing right after you finish it just isn't healthy."

I was about to argue with her that I would be fine but I stopped myself as I began to recall how much the routine actually taxed my body, between trying to manipulate the water through dust and holding my semblance right there have been some close calls in the past...

"Your right; I'll talk with the Ringmaster the next time I see her."

Thrush moved to protest but realised I had agreed with her for once and simply stood there trying to comprehend what happened, I don't quite know why this was so shocking for her but it was a little humorous to see her frozen there mouth agape while she tries to think.

"Umm… alright then; glad we were able to get that settled, but the Ringmaster is out on business of some kind so uhh… you wanna go see if we can find a place in town to eat? I hear they have great restaurants near Haven Academy." As the words leave her mouth she tries to physically silence herself by putting her hand over her mouth but she already said it so I fail to see the point; "Oh geez Navi I.. I didn't mean…"

She stumbled to find her words so I tried to change the subject for her: "Why are you apologizing? All you said was there were some good restaurants near the academy."

"Well yeah but I mean... never mind..." She shuffles outside and tells me she'll wait near the ring for me; apparently thinking I need a moment alone.

I decide to humor her and take a minute to remember my sister; about three years ago she was a huntress at Haven and she was 'a damned good one' as I've been told, unfortunately a mission went wrong and she was killed by the raiders, it hurt to know my sister was dead and it took me a year to really get over it but that was just the thing: I'm over it, sure sometimes I miss her but really I think Thrush is overreacting, I'm fine.

I grab some cash and go to find Thrush because it didn't really hit me how hungry I was up till now.

* * *

"Jeebus Nav; if you don't slow down your going to explode or something."

I finished chewing the most recent bite from my burger before I responded; "Spontaneous combustion doesn't work like that Thrush, and besides: this is only my twelfth burger."

It had taken us a while to find a good place still open this late in downtown Mistral but thankfully this sports bar was still open and had some damned good burgers.

While we ate a game of Grifball was playing on some of the displays keeping Thrush preoccupied while I finished my meal, I need to eat a lot because of my semblance being quite taxing on my stamina. As I finish my last burger a commercial break makes Thrush turns her attention back to me; "The fact you can eat shit like this whenever you want and still hold that figure..."

Once again Thrush tries to psyche me out but it really doesn't faze me at this point, I just ignore the comment and we start walking back home. It was quite dark out and too cloudy for the stars to shine but the streets were well lit as we made our way back to the compound; thought that didn't stop Thrush from having a small panic attack when a cat knocked over a garbage can as we walked by an alley, she's kinda cute when she's scared.

After returning to the fairground we split up as Thrush went to our room and I left to find Ringmaster Elise hoping she was back from whatever endeavour it was that preoccupied her earlier. I found her in her trailer/office working through some documents, she noticed when I entered and told me to wait for a moment gesturing to a nearby chair; after a few minutes she set aside the papers and addressed me; "Good evening Navi, is there something you wanted?"

"Yes actually; you see Thrush thinks it would be beneficial to my health if we shortened my performance just a bit so I don't always… feel so burned out after the show." I decided to leave out the detail about losing consciousness for now.

"Really? I never knew it was such a strain on you; by the time the shows over your usually already in your room so I never noticed, we can certainly take a look into changing the routine for you then."

I thank Elise for her time and make my way to my room while contemplating what to change in the routine; I just hopped I could figure out something that was easier but still crowd-pleasing… I knew I wouldn't have to be too constrained by the old set though as Elise was very understanding, which might be attributed to the fact she essentially been my mother for the past fifteen years.

Long story short she adopted me and my sister way back when, she wasn't just a kind mother-figure to me though; she cared for everyone here like family and keeps everything running smoothly, the fact she has to take care of the entire show and still finds the time for us is incredible.

Dang; I went on a tangent again.

After making it back to my room I grab a pen and paper and jot down a few ideas to change the routine, I tried to see if I could still keep my semblance relevant though as it was quite a crowd pleaser; it allows me to shift the density of my skin until it becomes living metal, only problem is if I don't focus there a chance I would also solidify my heart and lungs and die; so trying to focus between that and controlling water using dust can be really taxing on the mind and body.

I scrawled down a few things and set the book aside, it was getting late and we tend to run early shows on weekends so I need to rest.

* * *

 _{Miss me jacka**?}_

 **[Rush where the hell have you been?]**

 _{I told you I was taking a few hours off to catch up on volume three, by the way have you found a way to fix the editing problem?}_

 **[Sorta; I'm hoping these borders will work since the site editor won't let me use the line thing like in chapter one anymore.]**

 _{Right… wow you really haven't improved much when it comes to writing chicks huh?}_

 **[Shut up; I'm trying but I've had to change some things again because I apparently think like the actual writers for the show in some ways…]**

 _{If the writer of the show are anything like you than we're all f**ked, although that would make a lot of shippers happy I guess.}_

 **[Oh stuff it, we need to get back to the chapter.]**

* * *

I awake as usual around seven am to find Thrush clinging too me; she has a weird sleepwalking habit; I remember one time we actually found her walking the tightrope in her sleep, I had heard people brag they could preform a task in their sleep but Thrush is one of the few people I know who actually can act on that statement.

I slip out of her grasp and grab my jacket to head for the mess tent to grab some breakfast and get todays schedule, I let Thrush sleep in a bit longer as she usually wakes up soon after me but she tends to panic if she realizes she was clinging to me all night for whatever reason, I don't know if its just because she finds the situation itself embarrassing or what… oh they have strawberry jam today.

I get about half a loaves worth of toast and a few sides of bacon and sit down at a table and chew away while the rest of the troupe trickles in over the course of the next twenty minutes, Thrush grabs a bagel and joins me as ringmaster Elise taps her clipboard against the table a few times to get everyone's attention: "If I draw your attention away from the bacon for just a moment I have some big news people; today a high ranking member of the Altesian army will be attending todays show!" She takes a moment to let the troupe talk among themselves about the news before continuing; "So needless to say we need to bump up our act to one hundred and ten percent!" This prompts some cheers from the others including Thrush but I'm more confused than exuberated.

But before I had any chance to ask questions Thrush grabs a piece of my toast and pulls me to the main tent so fast I'm surprised I didn't get whiplash, after I'm able to see something other than speed-lines I notice Thrush scrawling something on one of the whiteboards we keep in the tent to list routines and schedules, after she finishes she turns back to me with a grin so big I think she might have dislocated her jaw to pull it off.

"I figured it all out; we can keep the spectacle of your act but draw the attention and stress away long enough for you to catch your breath while also looking amazing!" I take a moment to make sure she's actually done talking before I respond; she has a habit of taking long pauses to either breath or think of more things to say when she gets excited like this.

"What exactly do you have in mind then?"

"I'm glad you asked! Okay so you know how I have my tightrope act right?"

… Oh she actually wants an answer; I thought that was rhetorical, "Yeah kinda."

"Well I was thinking; if we start the act with me doing my normal routine but we remove the net to raise the tension, and then I pretend to lose my balance and fall from the rope but then you emerge form the tank below and ride a spire up to catch me!"

I take a moment to mull the idea over; we had actually done something similar once before during a show when she actually did lose her balance and I had to catch her but the crowd seemed to love it, "Okay I like what you've got so far but I assume theres more?"

A quick nod and she turns to the board to draw some details, "Yeah after you catch me you for the big bubble like usual but when you break it apart you keep some thin tethers between the bubbles and I use them to move around the ring walking on them like rope."

"Umm I don't know about that Thrushy; I might be pretty decent at manipulating dust-water but I don't think I could solidify the waters like that."

"See I figured you'd say that but that won't be a problem; check this out!" With that Thrush bounds over to the tank in the center ring that I get my water from, she scrambles up the side of it and does something that actually left me speechless for a moment; she was walking on the surface of the water, "How are you doing than?" Is all I can utter while I watch her walk on the water as though it were a freshly waxed ballroom floor.

"Well I use my aura to help me hold balance on the rope so I figured I use a bit of my old training and actually focus my aura down to my feet so I can essentially repel the water below me so I don't sink; pretty cool huh?"

All I manage is a nod as Thrush continues to dance across the waters surface, after simply enjoying the view for a few minutes we set to work practicing our new co-op routine; we had quite a lot of work to do but with the stakes raised with the announcement of the special guest from Atlas to encourage us; we were filled with determination.

* * *

 _{Wow… how many more pandas you plan on launching?}_

 **[Shut up people like referential humor.]**

* * *

The night rolls in and a broken moon hangs bright overhead as the time of the show draws ever closer, the grounds are bustling with life as the audience has begun making their way into the main tent for the show, I continue munching on my popcorn while I wait for Thrush to return; apparently she needed to change her outfit to better fit the act but frankly I think her unitard would have worked just fine: its lightweight, its apparently comfortable, and it shows just enough skin to ensure the audiences full attention.

"Well Nav-nav what do you think?"

'Nav-nav'? We've given each other odd pet-names before but that ones just weird; regardless I turn to look at her new outfit expecting something garish and insane but to my surprise the outfit is actually quite beautiful; the outfit was essentially a cat-suit that had a design that made it look like she had bright pink feathers wrapped around half of her body while leaving the other half a partially transparent sky blue with conveniently placed clouds, and that was just her outfit; she had her hair tied back in a curled bun and she now had deep blue strip dyed into her peach pink hair setting a nice contrast, all in all it was quite a breathtaking ensemble.

"I'm not going to lie; you look fantastic."

"Hee-hee, I'm glad you love it Navi because theres more to it!"

Oh crap.

My fears are partially realised as thrush pulls another outfit from the ether; it was a near parallel from her outfit as it was also a cat-suit but the transparent part was on the other side and a light pink with light leathery patches to cover what needs to be covered, the rest of the suit was a bright blue with silver bubbles.

"This is beautiful Thrush; but there is no way in hell I'm going to… how did you do that?"

Somehow Thrush had already got the outfit on me and even managed to dye a pink strip into my hair, "I'll never tell, now come on! We didn't spend all day practicing for nothing!"

With that she bounds off into the tent and starts ascending to the top of tent where her post is, after deciding that trying to understand how she managed to get me in this outfit would lead to more headaches I make my way into the tank in the center ring and bide my time waiting for my que. As time goes by I hear the crowd cheering and gasping and all the other noises typical of an audience for this kind of show and I let my mind drift as I slowly lap around the tank; I couldn't help but wonder what the military officer was hoping to see tonight but I hope we make a good impression, though the more I think about it I wonder more and more what a military officer would be doing here? Are they on leave and just looking for some entertainment? That seemed unlikely given that their arrival was announced beforehand... I didn't get much more time to mull it over because the cover for the tank begins to recede signalling I would soon need to catch Thrush.

Over the course of the past thirteen hours we practiced over and over making sure we had every last detail ironed out until we ha the entire routine memorised and knew every cue and action and how to execute them within a fraction of a seco- oh shit shes falling, I find my self ever so slightly late on my que to rise up with a pillar of water to catch her but despite the millisecond I missed I catch her and hold in the classic princess cradle as we climb t the top of the tent on a spire of liquid, as we reach the top of the tent we begin the step three as I summon the water and form it into a large sphere and we sink down inside it (after I make sure Thrush remembered to take a deep breath this time) and once we are in the center I begin to split of chunks of the orb to form smaller ones in the air like I would in my solo act, but instead of just leaving them to float I actually have them branch out with thin streams of water connecting them in loose web of floating orbs and Thrush leaves my grasp and starts sliding from orb to orb walking along the strands of liquid like any other rope, I allow myself a brief moment to listen to the crowd below only to be met with silence; out of the corner of my eye I see the crowd below has fallen dead silent as the marvel at the routine, I suppose it isn't everyday you see a young lady controlling water and have another lady walk around on said floating water.

We continue the act for several minutes with a variety of tricks with me manipulating the water and Thrush finding different ways to traverse the unorthodox paths and the crowd seemed to love it; now broken from their earlier stupor there was an uproar of cheer and applause, I had to go back to blocking them out as the sound nearly overwhelmed me but a combination of concentrating on the water and Thrush's position kept me focused, its funny; usually having her around makes focusing harder.

After a few more tricks we begin the finale of our act as Thrush leaps from bubble to bubble until she was near the top of the tent and I then twist the water into a single long downward spiral that Thrush rides down as thought grinding a rail with a skateboard, once she had made it down I activate my semblance and the spotlights focus on me as I slowly descend the reflecting light shines into the water and a rainbows spirals across the tent as I lower myself and the pillar down to the ground, once I land Thrush bounds over to my side and we take a bow as the audience is cheering louder than I ever heard, granted I usually don't hear much cheering as my act is early on and I'm usually unconscious during the rest of the show.

Thrush and I take out leave through the back of the tent and I fall into the dirt;

"Navi are you okay!?"

"Sorry force of habit."

"Wow really?"

"No actually I tripped on a rock, help me up please."

Once Thrush helps me pull my face out of the dirt I give the rock a swift kick knocking it about three inches away from where it was, I pick it up and throw it away and it lands about another foot away, I take some water from a nearby puddle and use it to throw the rock out onto the horizon because I was starting to get annoyed, after the rock was dealt with we make our way to our room because as awesome as we look in these outfits they aren't very comfortable to wear for long. Once we were inside I didn't waste a moment pulling off this crazy get-up and I go to my dresser to pull out something more comfortable, Thrush does the same but taking a bit more care in taking off her suit, wait hang on:

"Hey Thrush, remember how yesterday you were all freaked out seeing my breasts after I got out of the tub but now that we're both practically naked your fine."

Thrush pauses her dressing and a blank expression draws across her face as though she just had a huge realisation or something;

"Uhh… that's a good question, I guess its because seeing you naked when I'm also getting naked because we're changing out of our work clothes is like; part of the job, it's like when soldiers have to change and there all naked together, as apposed to me walking in on you naked by accient."

"Well if all you need is for the both of us to be naked to be comfortable I think that can be arranged."

Thrush's face blushes a shade red so dark I swear you could cook an egg on it; she might try to tease me but she can't take her own medicine very well. After my comment she shuffles into the far corner of the room while she continues getting dressed, once she finally finishes we make our way back out onto the fair grounds to wander for a bit; we eventually find ourselves in the area at the far end of the lot was a peculiar looking craft; it had four wings that fanned out in a X shape and a long thin body but what really got my attention were the twenty feet long-ish silver ribbons attached to the tips of the wings, I don't understand the point of those what so ever, if anything they look like they would be a hindrance. While I was busy trying to figure out how and why anyone would build a flying deathtrap in an even more idiotic design Thrush seemed to be having a small panic attack;

"Thrush calm down, whats wrong?"

"Ththth- THAT SHIP!"

Oh right, Thrush is a bit of a technophile when it comes to aircraft, I often forget because thinking about airships give me headaches,

"That ship is an Altesian interceptor! Its streamlined design and quad-cylinder dust distributer allows it to fly faster than any other craft in all of Remnant!"

"Great, that means it crashes even faster than most ships."

While Thrush continued to gush about that tin can I started manipulating some water from a nearby puddle to amuse myself when she stops talking suddenly and pulls me over to a mound of dirt and makes me lye down behind it;

"What are you doing Thrush?"

" _SHHHH! Look over there!"_ She points to the far side of the ship where a few armed men were walking around it and doing something to the panels on the front,

"Looks like the owners are doing maintenance, that thing probably breaks down a lot."

"No look closer; they aren't Altesian soldiers; their weapons are all wrong and their uniforms are outdated, I think they're trying to sabotage the craft!"

Upon closer inspection the way the people moved around the ship didn't seem right and the were constantly looking around and acting quite jittery.

"Nav we gotta do something; if those people tamper with the ship than the Officer and other soldiers are in danger!"

Before I can talk to Thrush about just finding the soldiers in the tent and warning them she charges off and starts working her way between vehicles to make her way to them, I begrudgingly grab a bucket and fill it with water from a puddle and make my way after her; I get about two thirds through the lot when I hear one of the fake soldiers speak:

"Hey whose footprints are thes- HKGK!" Sounds like Thrush knock him out to slow because his buddies noticed he never finished his question, I sneak a glance over the roof of the car I'm behind and see two people making there way to where Thrush got their teammate and I take a bit of a risky chance and throw my bucket into the air and sure enough a random flying bucket catches the attention of the two goons and I launch the water at them as hard as I can, though from this range manipulating the water is a little hard but I manage to hit the first guard in the face and knock him into the hull and he slumps down with a moan; unfortunately the other guy is now firing at me forcing me to duck behind an SUV of some sort; I had at first hoped that if they did start shooting that someone else would hear and get help but these guys were smart enough to bring silencers, its highly unlikely anybody would hear the guns over the crowd back in the tent which meant it was up to Thrush to stop this shooter herself while I was pinned down by his fire.

After about two minutes of this guy firing at me I get the feeling Thrush isn't able to take him so that leaves me to do it; I use my semblance to turn my arm metal and I pull of the driver-side door of the car I was using for cover and use it as a makeshift shield and I start moving in towards the ship while the gunman's bullets plink off my shield; it occurs to me I could probably have just used my semblance to become metal and walk right up to him but I guess I forgot in the heat of things, damned hindsight.

Once I'm within two feet of the thug he tries to hit me with the but of his submachine gun but I slip under the door while he hits it and I land a mental punch right below the belt, now in pain the shooter drops to his knees and I give a quick kick to the side of his head, he leans a bit after I hit him but not much so I try punching him instead but he still doesn't fall, I summon some of the water from earlier and send a torrent into his face to knock him out, fairly proud of myself for taking out to armed guards I realise I have no idea where Thrush is, I want to call out to her but there might be more people with guns, I decide to look inside the ship because she would probably look in there for more people too, it takes me a few moments to actual step foot inside this hunk of junk but I force myself inside and notice a door left ajar a bit further in; it lead to a small cargo bay,

"Never thought I'd see you again."

I turn on my heel expecting a fist or a bullet to come flying at me as the mysterious voice from nowhere finishes but I couldn't see anyone behind me, I frantically look around the relatively small space to no avail trying to find the voice, or Thrush for that matter…

"If your looking for your friend shes in the cockpit bleeding from a hole in her stomach."

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?!"

"Relax; I didn't cut anything vital so she has plenty of time, assuming either of you get out of this ship alive."

I activate me semblance and smash through every crate and box in the bay making a break for the cockpit, I wasn't about to see my best friend bite it.

"Now now Navi don't go running off yet, we've only just reunited."

I'm forced to a stop as something drops down from the ceiling and slams into the floor right in front of me, once they stood up I could clearly see my opponent was a tall woman wearing some kind of mask shaped like a Blitz rhino that covers her entire head; though her mask was hardly the most distracting part of her outfit as in place of a shirt she had bandages wrapped around her chest and pants so baggy you could probably fit three more people in them and still have room,

"Look I don't know how the hell you are or what the f**k your doing but you hurt my friend and that's enough reason for me to kick your ass!"

I lunge forward hoping the sheer weight and force of my metal body would be enough to knock this b***h on her ass but when I barrel into her she doesn't budge, she grabs the back of my neck and throws me aside like I was a scrape of paper instead of a woman with literally nerves of steel,

"You really should stop relying on your semblance so much, you weight to much as it is."

"Okay what the actual f**k!? You come here to blow up a ship or some shit like that and then you attack my best friend and now you insult me and call me fat who the f**k are you and what do you think gives you the right-" I lunge at her again "TO BE SUCH A B***H!?" I try to make my movements obvious and I see her ready to knock me away which I use to my advantage; when she goes to grab me I let my body slack and I shift my semblance once more changing from metal to flesh, and from flesh to liquid; once my body had turned into water I curled around this b***h's arm and before she could react I forced my entire being around her head cutting her off form any air; she struggles and thrashes around trying to shake me off even attempting to punch me a few times, punching water… I literally cannot think of anything more futile, after a few minutes the lack of oxygen finally stops her and she falls to the floor unconscious, I slide onto the floor and reconstitute back to a normal human, I resist the near overwhelming urge to hurl and shamble my way over towards the cockpit; using my semblance to make myself metal was hard enough but going the other way and becoming a liquid was really friggen painful but I couldn't think of any other way to take that b***h down with what little time I might have to help Thrush. I throw open the door to the cockpit and find Thrush lying on the piolets seat clutching a wound near her stomach,

"Jeeguz Thrush what did that b***h do to you?!"

" _Ahgh,_ that guy I tried to knock out had a knife and got a lucky shot in, _ennf_ but that chick with the weird mask helped me by taking me in here; there was a med-kit under the seat so I managed to not kill myself."

"Wait she helped you? She told me she attacked you and then tried to kill me!"

Before we could further argue about whether or nit that b***h was insane the real Altesian soldiers show up, apparently somebody heard our fighting and told them to get out here and do something about it, they pulled us out of the ship and started to patch Thrush up while she told them where the thugs were tampering with their flying tub, I tired asking one of them what they did with the mask chick but they said they only found the three men we knocked out, I started to get a bit pissed because first this b***h apparently helps Thrush but lies to me and tries to kill me and then she pulls so friggin disappearing act and… GRRGFHJT.

"Uhh scuze me miss, but did you say you were looking for a woman in a Blitzer mask?"

A short man catches my attention as he was apparently listening to me, weird but he might be helpful;

"Yes I did; do you know where she is?"

"I'm afraid not, though I did see her run off; I was the one who saw the commotion and got the soldiers, while she ran though she dropped this, I think it could help." The old man hands me a napkin with the name 'Outside Heaven Casino' jotted down in ink.

"You sure this is hers then sir?"

"I'm positive, it fell from her pocket while she ran off."

"Well thank you then mister…"

"Smith, John Smith."

"Right, thanks then."

I took the note and shoved it in my pocket and went back to our rooms to see how Thrush was doing; I arrived to find her lying in bed half asleep,

"Navi hiiiiiiiiiiii… how are ya?"

"Thrush are you okay?"

"Yeeeeeeeeeesh I'm fiiiiiiiine baby; the nice soldier boy gave me some morphine and I feel greaaaaaaat… he told me I should nap but I wanna see you firs…"

She motions me over to the bed and I sit down beside her, she then grabs me and pulls me down and glomps onto me,

"That nish lady with the mask said she was glad yous making friends, she was sooo niiiice…." Thrush finally succumbed to the painkiller and took her well deserved rest and I manage to worm out of her grasp, once I do I write to quick letters; one for Elise to explain I will be using those vacations days I've been saving for the past decade and a half, and one for Thrush which was me apologizing for leaving her tonight.

I dropped her letter on her bedside table and I slide the other letter into Elise's door and I make my way to the nearest skyport; I hated to leave my family now but I had to get some answers about that crazy chick with the mask, I was ready to go to patch, I was ready to hunt down this casino, and I was ready

To fight.

* * *

 _{Jeez could you have waited any longer to actually finish this?}_

 **[I'm not dealing with you right now, I actually have the fourth trialer all mapped out and ready to write so you can stuff it for now, sorry for the delay folks, next chapter soon-ish.]**

 _{If you don't hear from his in the next decade then thats normal for him.}_


	4. Trailer Diamond

An Axe to GRiND Trailer 4

It feels warm today, a bit warmer than yesterday but not a lot; just a bit.

 _ **PTHUMP**_

Though its still quite early in the morning, to early to really judge.

 _ **PTHUMP**_

I can smell the flowers booming now; the roses always leave such a beautiful scent in the air, perhaps I can pick some later for grandma; she always loved when the roses bloomed in the spring.

 _ **PTHUCK**_

Darn, I missed that time. The beast manages to pick out where I'm perched and starts charging at me forcing me to abandon the branch as its large claws rip it from the tree, as it attacks the tree it leaves itself open and I simply shoot it through the back of it's head.

 _ **PTHUMP**_

I really got to figure out if my silencer is breaking or if my hearing is just too good, because frankly it sounds far too loud to me… ah that isn't important right now; what is important is I tell brother Caesar that the orchard is clear and the other monks are free to harvest the fruits, how so many beowolves manage to get in still baffles me as you usually don't see them this high on the mountains, well for whatever reason draws them in I have plenty of ammo to deal with them.

After picking a handful of roses I make my way back to the temple in hopes of fin- **THUD** I smash face first into something and then hit the ground;

"Agghh what the hell did I just run into!?"

"The door frame sweetie, you'd think after the thirty fourth time you'd remember where it is."

"Ughh hello grandma, I got you these." I hold out the roses and she takes the bundle and takes a long sniff,

"Thank you Desmond their beautiful, do you intend to get off the floor anytime soon dear?"

"Well I do need to tell Caesar the beowolves have been dealt with, although I am tempted to continue lying here in protest of this door."

I pick myself up off the floor and go to find Caesar while doing my best to avoid any other doorframes; I can shoot a beowolf between the eyes from two thousand yards but I can't figure out when I'm about to walk into door frame, being blind sucks. I suppose some context might help you understand my plight; being born into a world infested with creatures bent on tearing humans limb from limb is one thing but to be born blind into said world is another thing entirely, my parents where mortified when I was born with milky white eyes that would never see but thankfully my grandmother was a practitioner of something called 'Surge', supposedly it was a form of energy some people could harness from the moon and use it to fight Grimm as it was able to severely injure if not outright kill them, she took me to the temple of the 'Broken moon brotherhood' and they tried to teach me how to use this supposed power but it yet alludes me, however what they were able to teach me is how to see without sight; they taught me to listen to the world, to hear every small and rustle or shake and build an image of the world around me in my mind, then all they needed to do from there was arm me with a 50. caliber rifle and point me towards some monsters;

 **THUD**

alas I still can't get around doors frames; they don't make noise or have an aura so going through them properly is a crapshoot at best. After a few minutes I make it to Caesar's chamber and I see a blueish white glow that tells me he's here; "Hey Caesar, I came to report that the orchard has been cleared and the others are free to harvest now."

"Thank you brother Desmond, I suppose this means you will be retiring to your chambers for the day then?"

"That's my intent, staying up all night shooting grimm is somewhat taxing."

"Very well brother, I wish you a pleasant rest."

"And a good day to you too."

With that I head back into my room or as the other staff call it: 'the only doorframe without dents' as I had long gotten used to the routine of waking up at dusk and leaving my room rifle slung over my shoulder; I no longer practiced with the monks as it seemed rather pointless to me but I took up whatever jobs I could in the night to make myself useful; this usually meant I would take watch over the grounds at night to stop any would-be problems.

I take off my jacket and hang it off a chair and lye down on my bed and grope around for my bedside table and grab a book; 'The man with two souls', its quite a compelling read and I wish I could get the sequel but they haven't made a brail print yet but I guess there wouldn't be much demand for such things would there? I feel through a couple of pages while I relax and I use my other hand to click on the radio between pages; a somber aria softly echoes of the stone walls; I think the singers name was Weiss Snow or something along those lines, she isn't bad by any means but not really my kind of music, as the song crescendos and fades to silence I finish the chapter and set to book back on the table, or at least the edge as it tips off and falls to the floor with a loud thud, I was to tired to deal with that right now so I just rolled on to my stomach and slowly fall asleep.

… Well I can see something in front of me so I suppose that means I'm dreaming; I briefly thinks of an ice cream cone and surely enough one appears in my hand and tastes fantastic if not a little too cold, I was fortunate enough to be an effective lucid dreamer thanks to the teachings of the monks; apparently a lot of hunters and huntresses come to them to learn how to lucid dream so they don't have to deal with the dark dreams that can follow failed missions, I honestly couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose people as I've always been surrounded by family who were highly capable of defending themselves as my mother is a cop and my father was a mixed martial arts tournament fighter, and then all the monks and my grandma have the power of burst to just make Grimm explode or something like that so the concept of loss is foreign to me, some would call me fortunate but honestly in this world it feels more like an impending doom as one day I'm sure something will be lost and I'll have no way to deal with it… at least I have my dream ice cream to keep my mind off that for now.

I start walking towards the shape in the distance while I finish my ice cream and lament the fact I probably look ridiculous if the actions preformed in my dreams are reflected in real life while I lye in dead but those fears don't preoccupy my thought for long as I find myself face to… _faze_ with the thing in the distance, it was a dark red haze in the shape of a man about my height; it was an aura outline which was how I 'see' people though I can't recall knowing anyone with an aura this colour but there they were, I began to assume this mystery person was just a figment of my imagination. I take a step back from the figure hoping to see the features of the body to get an identity of this anomaly and it's a good thing I did because just as my footing allows me to lean back the red figure swings out at me brandishing what appeared to be an axe and barely misses my jugular, I take opportunity of the fact the being swung and missed and deliver a left hook to its ribs causing it to stagger ad while it does I jump back a few feet and dream up my weapon; Shiryoku- a high caliber semi automatic rifle with a collapsible bayonet and some void dust clips, and before you ask: no it doesn't have a scope on it, why the hell would I need a scope?

The red figure (whom I will refer to by the colour to make this easier) recovers and notices my rifle and spins its weapon and it folds in on itself and Red pulls something of its back and jams it into the bottom of the folded axe, surprisingly Red then holsters the weapon and beckons me forward thought it seems like its hostility had ceased which left me feeling uneasy; usually when something in my dreams attacks me it wont stop until I beat it or I get bored and think it away but this one wasn't acting normal, I keep Shiryoku in hand and walk up to the figure and once I'm within arms reach from Red it holds out its arms in what I initially believe to be an attack but when I start to bring up my rifle I realise Red is asking for a hug… I've had odd dreams before but usually I don't end up hugging the same thing I was just fighting, I cautiously lower my rifle and hold it to the side and comply with Red and give it a hug though I only use one arm on the off chance of this being a ruse but no; Red hugs me and- whoa definitely a guy with that Adams apple, and once our hug is complete he lets me go and takes a step back and casually pull his gun from his back and starts to walk away towards a new figure that I believe only just now appeared, this being was a deep green colour and was a bit shorter than Red and thinner to; probably a young woman but its hard to tell from here but Green starts walking towards Red who offers his fist for her to bump and Green cranes her neck in apparent disdain but complies anyway and once Red fades away Green pulls two objects from her back; I think I'm having some kind of tournament based dream or something… I hope the prize includes a check, an invisible audience applauds my joke and Green shakes her head.

After the crowd silenced Green started taking up fighting stance and charges at me while keeping her arms and weapons close to her sides at thrusts her left weapon at my face so I sidestep and she glides past though she recovers and spins her weapons allowing me to identify them as some form of tonfa, Green jumps into the air and start spinning as she descends towards me which I'm forced to leap back from but it seems like she wanted this as she stops spinning before hitting the ground and rolls up to me and punches toward my head with both tonfas and I crane my neck back as far as I can as a loud bang resonates from her weapons, shotgun shells from the sound of it.

As I fall back from the dodge I hold my rifle in both hand behind me and as it makes contact with the floor I shift my weight and kick Green in the chest with both legs and she collapses onto her back, I roll onto my stomach and jump up and turn back to Green who was slowly picking herself up, when she was standing she starts to put away her weapons like Red and holds out her right hand with her body movements making her distaste evident, I shake her hand and she wanders off and another coloured shape appears: this one had a bright blue glow and was slightly taller than I was so it was at least six four and its figure plainly showed she was female, she holds out her fist for Green who complies without her normal resistance and fades away as Blue walks up to me though when she starts walking towards me she starts moving her arms in an odd way and I hear some sloshing noises, it wasn't until she stopped moving and turned slightly to pose in front of as Red and Green had done before her that I see a strange orb on her back when I realise she is using dust to manipulate water, I wondered if the dust was sewn to her clothes or imbedded in her skin but I don't think I'd really be able to ask these hazes about that.

She motions toward me and I hear the sound of rushing water and I'm forced to dive aside to avoid a current of water, this was going to be very though as I would have to rely on my hearing to deal with her water but unfortunately water doesn't exactly have a well labeled soundtrack so it was going to be partially guesswork for this fight; I start running in a loose ark around her as I hear the water hitting the ground behind me periodically as Blue attempted to hit me but I was able to allude her attacks, after putting some distance between the two of us I spin on my heel and fire a round towards her forcing her to duck out of the way and I charge towards her, as Blue returns to her stance from dodging she now sees me mere inches way from her and ready to hit her with the butt of my rifle but when I move to hit her I see her light blue glow dim considerably and when my rifle hits her chest a lound clang resonates and I fall back as hitting her resulted in my whole body vibrating from the recoil of attacking her, it was as if I had just tried to punch a steel wall.

I land hard on my back and Blue flicks some water off her hands on to me to add insult to injury but then offer her hand and pulls me up, she motions the water back to her and I hear it fill into the container on her back, she starts walking off and the hazing figures of Red and Green appear I decide that even though that was nice mental exercise I still had no idea who these people were if they were anyone but I figured I could at least try, I call out to the figures and ask them to wait but they continue walking so I chase after them, I manage to catch up to them but as I'm about to touch Blue's shoulder I'm awoken by the sounds of conflict outside my room in the temple.

I roll off my bed and onto the floor and pull the revolver out from under my bedframe and sidle up to the wall by my door where Shiryoku was leaning and grab it, I was still groggy from just waking up but whatever was going on outside sounded bad so I needed to suck it up, I crack open my door and peer down the halls before realizing I can see aura through most walls so there clearly wasn't anyone in this hall, I hear some more fighting and make my way towards it hoping that no ones been hurt. After walking further I find myself in the main hall where the struggle was happening; it looked like one of the younger monks was wrestling with someone I didn't recognize,

"Alright what the hell is going on here?!" I yell while bringing the .44 up and aiming in the direction of the two in hopes they'll stop fighting but my plan only half works as the monk stops but the other person takes advantage of the ceased fighting and grabs something off the monk and starts running towards the entrance to the temple;

"Stop him brother Desmond; he has stolen many of the scrolls we use to teach burst! But beware for he carries with him a powerful sword."

"And I have a high caliber rifle with an effective range a lot longer than a sword, I'll have those scrolls back before lunch."

"But Desmond; it is a quarter after three…"

"Oh, then I'll have them back before dinner!"

I start chasing after the thief as fast I can but he's a slippery bastard and manages to constantly stay just out of reach as we ran through the temple, but as we were just a few feet away from the temple doors I see a familiar blur of teal and shout;

"GRANDMA DOOR FRAME Now!"

I shout ahead confusing the thief as he cranes his neck to look back at me with a probably confused expression causing him to run head long into grandma's reach as she grabs him by his collar and hoists him off the ground, he begins to thrash and struggle until he actually see's grandma's face and stops cold; likely intimidated by her strength and stature despite her appearance, while in her grasp I relive the thief of the scrolls;

"Desmond sweetie it isn't nice to cheat while playing tag like this." Her sense of humor leaves something to desired but regardless I had the scrolls once again and the thief was caug- where did he go?

"Granny where did he go?"

"Hmm? Oh shoot he wriggled out of his sweater while I wasn't looking, darn kid musta been slippery like a weasel… I'm keeping this sweater; it looks nice." Grandma starts putting on the sweater while I check the contests of the case the thief had to make sure the scrolls are intact, as I do I hear the soft sound of a few stiches breaking until a loud ripping noise fills the hall, "Welp this sweater has a key-hole now." I have no idea what that means but from what I've heard of grandma's fashion sense that might be for the best.

As granny starts posing I turn away and notice the monk from earlier as he rushes into the room then stops to catch his breath, "Brother Desmond *Pant*, Bikkhuni Sabrina, were you able to stop the ruffian?" The young monk I now recognize as Loggins catches his breath after a few more deep breaths and I had him the case with the scrolls, "Oh thank Oum you recovered them, we never got around to copying these down onto paper or anything so if we lost them it would be catastrophic."

"On that note kid; how did that punk there get into the locked chambers in the first place? Caesar usually keeps that place locked up real tight." Grandma asks while still trying to adjust the sweater.

"I'm not sure yet Bikkhuni Sabrina, I had only encountered the scoundrel as he was trying to sneak out, I haven't had a chance to inspect the locked chambers, but I'm assuming the miscreant got away given that you are now wearing his garb I believe it would be wise to check them post-haste."

Loggins turns around and starts jogging back through the temple towards the locked chambers where the most of the valuable objects are kept, grandma and I also start jogging down the halls and we quickly pass Loggins and keep rushing down the hall and we make it to the chambers shortly after, and granny starts looking over the doors while I stand there for moral support.

"This is odd, the door was opened from the inside so that punk must have climbed in through a window on the far side of the building, that or the underground tunnels, or the sky lights, or the laundry shoot,"

"This is quite possibly the worst place to put important objects ever, of all time."

Granma rocks her head side to side, "Yeah it really is, well I should probably go tell Caesar about this and get his opinion." With that grandma leaves the chamber and heads down the hall, I remain behind and wait until I no longer hear footsteps so I can examine the room myself; I start rhythmically tapping the barrel of my rifle against the ground so a series of light rings echo through the room and give me a chance to 'see' things around me, I hear the sound pitch oddly in some areas as finds an opening so I make my way over to the hole while continuing to tap the ground, once at the hole in the floor I tap the inside of it a few times and I hear it lead all the way outside which makes me wonder; if the thief was able to use this passage to get in undetected why wouldn't they use it to get back out?

A shiver runs down my spine as a cold gust wafts through the tunnel and into the chamber making me wonder why this place doesn't have better isolation, I focus my attention back on the tunnel and tap a few more times, the tunnel wasn't very wide; maybe seventy-six centimeters' wide, most people might not be able to fit through here but it was designed as a means for monks to escape and they are pretty skinny fellas though I suppose I would be too if I meditated all day and ate next to nothing but peaches.

I keep tapping at the tunnel as there is something off about the sound right near the end of the tunnel, like a big rock was in the way or something, not big enough to block it but… oh f**k it's a bomb isn't it? I hit the wall with the barrel once more and find a window to climb out of, it had no glass in it or any other form of fortification leading me to wonder how the heck this room hasn't been broken into until now, once out the window I started climbing down brick by brick until I got to the outcropping that the tunnel ended on and started looking for the chunk of, what I assumed was; a mining charge. After I find it a quick grope revealed it was a large shaped charge but it lacked a detonator of any sort, why the hell would someone go through the rouble of breaking into a place to rob it and then leave a bomb that can't explode?

I pull the material out of the tunnel and toss it down the cliff, maybe a beowolf will try to eat it. So a person broke in, attempted to steal scrolls from the temple, and left an unusable bomb in the tunnel; so a crap robber steals from a crap vault and leaves a crap bomb… weird. I climb back into the widow where surprisingly Caesar and Granny were waiting;

"Brother Desmond, Sabrina has informed me of the burglary; was anything else taken?"

"Not likely, from what I can tell the thief came in through this tunnel and given how small it is seems like he couldn't go back through hence he ran into the temple instead, although there was a dust charge left at the other end, not enough to do any damage to the temple but it didn't even have a detonator, whoever that punk was they didn't seem to know what they were doing."

Caesar flinches as I mention the bomb, "A bomb you say; this is a concerning matter indeed, thank you for all your help Desmond you may return to your chambers, I have a feeling your vigil tonight will be especially important." Caesar and granny leave the room with Caesar mumbling something as they walk, I take his advice and return to my room for the rest of the day though as I try to return to sleep I couldn't help but wonder about that odd dream from earlier; my dreams are usually odd but not like that one was… for crying out loud I'm trying to decipher dreams like some 'new' age hippie; screw that I'm going to sleep.

* * *

I wake up at the usual time just as the sun begins to set behind the mountains and I grab my rifle and make my way to the courtyard to start keeping watch as I've done every night for nearly four years; not the most extravagant resume but it's kept me busy. As I make my way outside I pass by a number of the monks as they're turning in for the night though once I'm at the doors I'm surprised to find someone waiting there for me;

"Brother Desmond; in light of todays events I have decided I shall hold vigil at your side tonight."

"Uhh that really isn't necessary Caesar; I mean it was one punk and he didn't even get away with anything; hell he actually left with less that he had when he came."

"Ahh yes I was wondering where Sabrina got that sweater, but why would the thief wear a keyhole sweater?"

"From what I heard It wasn't like that until granny tried it on, for the record the sound of a sweater ripping is kinda terrifying the first time you hear it."

Caesar and I Argued back and forth for a few minutes about whether or not he would stay outside with me but he broke me down and convinced me, I had to find a different tree to sit in tonight as the branch I normally sat on had been ripped off by a beowolf earlier. Once situated I take aim as usual though I can't help but feel distracted by Caesar meditating next to me; he only inhales once every few minutes and it freaks me out.

 _ **PTHUMP**_

A handful of bewolves stumble into the orchard as the usually do and I dispatch them one after the other.

 _ **PTHUMP**_

Another usual night all things considered aside from the slight distraction of Caesar's breathing, I really don't think anything is going to happen… I'm going to regret thinking that aren't I?

 _ **KRACKOOOM**_

Damn you Murphy.

Far out to the edge of the fields a large chunk the fence surrounding the monastery grounds crumbles to dust as the explosion still rings in the distance, I leap out of the tree and roll as I land on the ground and start running towards the new hole because If beowolves were able to get through the fence before now they and all the other abominations got a big frickin' opening to waltz through; speak of the devils a pack of at least ten of the beasts pour through the opening like a wave of claws and teeth, I pull out my revolver and spin the dual chambers to line up some white dust and fire a round into the air in hopes of creating a large ball of light which should alert the rest of the small village, the downside of this is it paints a huge bullseye on me for the grimm.

I spin the chamber again and load up some phosphorous dust and unload my remaining five rounds into the oncoming horde, from the sound of it only three actually hit their targets but the smell of burnt fur and howls of pain cut short it would seem I did manage to take some out, I needed to start taking more caution though as I could only hear more and more grimm pouring in and where I could earlier here the individual footfalls of the beats now it droned into a single constant wave of noise making nearly impossible to distinguish one monster from another, a number of them leap towards me at once which I can only visualise as a living wave of claws and fangs about to crash down onto me.

 _*SHIFF SHIIF SHFF SHIFF*_

As I stand before the oncoming throng of maw I feel four swift drafts of air fly past my head in rapid succession as the wave of grimm bursts and their already disintegrating corpses fall around me and the mob pauses in confusion; I recognize this as Caesar's weapon which comprised of a number of metal orbs around the size of a baseball kept aloft using magnetic dust which also allows him to propel them at high speeds which is what allowed him to save my ass just there; as the grimm remember their goal of tearing us all to shreds I take my revolver and spin the chamber until the yellow dust lines up with the next round and I fire at Caesar's orb and a bolt of electricity links between the four orbs and the new charge pulls them together and shocks and tears through even more girmm, we continue the fight with this strategy to thin the ranks of the beast until we push them back to the wall where granny is already using a combination of dusts to rebuild the wall while she holds a beowolf in a headlock before she takes a deep breath and the creature glows for a moment as though it had an aura before dissolving to ashes, that was the power of burst apparently; they play it up like some amazing superpower but I've 'seen' plenty of people rip through grimm in a similar fashion so I question the point of it but I owe these monks to much to start question their faith.

After approximately fifteen minutes we finally finished rebuilding the wall and killing the grimm that made it inside, there was a lot of damage to the buildings in the area and a few injuries but I haven't caught word of anything worse thankfully. After making sure once more that the wall was secured I make my way to find Caesar and Granny Sabrina, I heard them having a conversation in the distance and made my way closer;

"Bikkhuni Sabrina; what is that poking out of the hole in your sweater?" Caesar asked,

"Uhh are you referring to my… oh no you mean this," I hear her pull a crumpled sheet from the sweater and try to smooth it out; "This is a note detailing some instructions on where to plant bombs, it looks like this was meant to be something a lot bigger." I hear granny hand the paper to Caesar;

"By the word of Oum… this is quite unsettling indeed; if I'm reading this right it appears we were targeted by 'S of Outside Haven': I had heard of their crime syndicate from the soldiers that bring the imported goods but I never would have conceived the idea they would attack us… I must go speak with the other monks about this matter… Sabrina I implore you: don't inform Desmond of this information, you know he will try to take matters into his own hands." Caesar takes his leave, and granny takes a deep breath and sighs;

"How long are you going to hide kid?" I step around the corner and face granny, "Look Desmond; I know you and I know it doesn't matter what I or Caesar says and your going to try and sneak out and go to that club to beat some answers out of them." I nod slowly as she nailed my intentions,

"But frankly I say we cut to the chase; you're a great fighter and smart enough to handle yourself as long as there aren't to many doorframes and frankly I'd sleep a lot better knowing my grandson is kicking the asses of the punks who tried to blow up the temple, so here:" granny takes a deep breath and holds the paper and weird sound resonates from her off hand for a moment as she touches the paper;

"Here, I pumped some aura into the ink, you should be able to see the letters now." She hands me the sheet and sure enough there was a faint glow from the letters making it possible to see them,

"Granny I'm blind I've never seen any of these before, I use brail to read." Granny looks at her feet for a moment and mutters something so quietly even I can't hear it;

"Ok well look I'll scrawl the address down on another piece and you can give it to the pilot who brings the supplies in and tell him I'm cashing in that favor he owes me."

After a few minutes granny handed me a new sheet of paper with the location I needed written down and I made my way to the landing pad and waited for the next supply ship; I could hear its engines in the distance as it drew closer: I will find these people, I will get answers, I will take vengeance,

I will fight.

* * *

 _Four months? I got say I'm impressed; you actually finished the 'trailers' before the volume four premier, I figured it'd take at least another century before you finished this… though calling this 'finished' is a bit of an exaggeration._

 **Would it kill you to compliment me for once?**

 _Honestly it might, because if you did something worthy of praise it would most likely be a sign of Armageddon._

 **Bluggh… Well look; there is one thing I have been prepping for this whole time and that's how you all meet, this is where we take a step away from the usual structure of RWBY fanfiction;**

 _Don't tell me: you're going to make a chapter about the four of us meeting and partnering up under chaotic and violent circumstances but in the end we come together and fight our way out as a team, am I close?_

… **Shut up Rush**

 _You know you could make me shut up by just not typing right?_

…

 **Hope you enjoyed the final 'trailer' folks; the real story begins now!**


	5. Chapter 1

Chapter one: What lies inside haven?

* * *

The hum of the engines was the only noise to be found within the small VTOL until it was abruptly punctured by a burst of static followed by a reporter in mid sentence;

"And that's how Chichi the panda found love; in other news there was a brief firefight at the 'Western Haven Casino' in Patch last night as a group of vigilantes uncovered a number of criminal operations including weapon smuggling, illegal dust trafficking, and bootlegging Spruce Willis films; the four vigilantes left the scene before they could be interviewed but eyewitness reports suggest they were a young team of hunters though others suggest 'they were nothing more than a group of idiots who happened to get lucky while they were busy fighting', whatever the reason behind the fight though it led to a number of criminals being apprehended and hundreds of illegal arms off the streets, I am Lisa Lavender of Vale News Netw-" the reporter is cut short as the projector for the screen is smashed by a poorly bandaged fist, said fist belonged to Grant Cortello who sat back down and begrudgingly unwound his bandages as the glass shards had drew more blood, Grant held his hand out as a small orb of water engulfs his hand and swirls around cleaning the wounds and washing off the blood before floating back over towards Navi Umi who separated the blood into a small bucket and poured the water back into a number of small bottles on her belt, Grants nods to Navi in silent thanks as he tries to re-tie the bandages only to feel a hand placed on his shoulder; Desmond Gray takes the bandages and starts carefully wrapping Grant's hand much finer this time around, another solemn nod and the ride continues in silence.

* * *

To bring some clarity to the situation lets rewind the clock to the previous evening; we'll start from the perspective of Rushuna Silverburg:

* * *

So this is Western Haven… This has to be the only casino where the clientele has more skin showing then the waitresses… I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. I continue to scan the room from my seat at the bar; the only thing more intoxicating than the stench of booze an cigarettes was the drone of the trashy music that sounded more like a compilation of accordions being shoved into a trash compactor, I take a swig of the overpriced martini I ordered… bleh; I set the drink aside and start making my way towards the bathrooms: in building like this bathrooms are usually near the back rooms where the employees do their s**t so I might get somewhere, I have to be careful as I worm through the throng of people jumping up and down at random; sorry I mean ' _dancing_ ', guhh whatever happened to the days when people went to big band clubs? Just calmly taking a seat at a nice table while the band plays some swing or jazz music and its just a nice atmosphere, all these f**kin' hipsters listening to their modern pop crap an- oh I'm here.

I take a second to lean against the wall and pull out my scroll and try to look inconspicuous as I try to find somewhere useful to go but the only doors back here were the bathrooms, usually the have the employee area near here but I can't f**king find it… * _sigh*_ Guess I'm going to have to do this s**t the hard way; I pull the chip out of my pocket and roll it over the back of my hand while inspecting it again: It said it was a chip to the V.I.P lounge but I didn't know if that was just where it was from or if you actually use it to get in like some other joints I've had to work in. I find the door for the lounge and watch it for a bit to see what happens and sure enough someone comes up and flashes the chip; the guy looked weird though: he was wearing a suit and tie in a weird red hue and he had a metal attaché case with some odd logo on it, I couldn't make heads or tails of it or who this guy thought he was dressing all swanky to come to a s**thole like this, either he was a business partner of the 'Westside Devils' or he was asking to be mugged and killed out back next to the dumpster, regardless of sticking out like a sore thumb the bouncer open the door and lets him inside, I wait for a few minutes after he enters and present my chip and he lets me inside and I take the stairs up to the next level.

Surprisingly the VIP lounge was actually pretty nice inside with clean floors and proper ventilation and decent music, though the clientele was the most apparent difference as nearly everyone in here was wearing a suit or dress which now made me the odd one out; I manage to avoid drawing too much attention as I make my way to a more secluded area where I can use my semblance to look like I'm wearing something more presentable; this is easier said then done though as changing what my clothes looks like requires dust too and I have a finite amount to use but I don't have much f**king choice unless I want them to catch on to me, two minutes and half a crystal later and I was wearing a nice dress that ended at my knees with a seem on the side, the top had simple straps and beneath it a mesh cut top that was partially transparent; if you want a better example look at the dress Blake wore in volume two; this author is about as creative as 'Dingo Pictures'.

I take a seat on one of the many couches in the room and start casing the place for any sign of where _S_ might be; this wasn't going to be too easy though considering the only info I had about _S_ was that fact he refers to him/herself with just the letter so this was going to be a f**king long nig- **KRIISH** before I can even finish my thought the sound of a large amount of glass shattering comes from the dance floor in the next room and for a brief moment its silent before a number of gunshots ring out from below followed by a wave of screams and people rushing for the exits; during the chaos I slip past some of the panicking patrons and make my way to the back rooms the employees spilled from probably heading down to deal with whoever was stupid enough to open fire in here, I find my way past a number of rooms filled with guns and dust and other illegal stuff that I'd probably try to take for myself if I had more time but right now I had too… I find myself drawn into a room with the most beautiful thing I've ever seen: an open vault full of lien, stacks and bags and piles of lien just sitting there begging for me to give it a home in my purse; I start stuffing as much as I can into my bag and belts and any other place I could store it an-

"Hey what the hell do you think your doin'!?"

Oh f**kberries.

* * *

Well miss Rushuna seems a tad preoccupied so perhaps it would be best to take a look from the perspective of another; Grant Cortello.

* * *

Suit? Check.

Lien? Check.

Enough rubber bullets to take down the Altesian army?

Whoops, only about enough for a single beowolf… eh I probably won't need it anyway.

I close the attaché case concealing my weapons from the public eye and straighten my tie, I looked posh as frig if I do say so myself; I am going to look so good when I take this place down and expose them as the degenerate scum they are; then dad's money and Fox's leg will be avenged... this will be the first time I've had to fight without Fox at my side since we met… heh; that just means I won't have to waste time explaining our next move and I can just focus on being awesome!

After what felt like hours the ship landed at the Patch airport and start making my way to the casino, I had everything set up so the staff would think I'm from a subsidiary of my father's company; I'm labeled as the representative of a security business looking to 'do business' with them; I actually had aspirations of forming some sort of security service prior to this plan so I'm killing two Nevermore with one bullet here; all I had to do was get enough evidence of their illegal dealings and then get to the authorities; surely the legal system will want to crack down on a serious criminal network run by powerful people with a number of connections that could allow them to accomplish a large number of deeds ranging from smuggling to the murdering of important people… okay when I say that out loud…

Oh I'm here.

I step inside the casino and I'm immediately blinded by a mixture of colorfully advertised slot machines and the lights of a dance floor, it takes me a few moments before my eyes can adjust to how its somehow too bright and yet too dark at the same time and I stumble over to a door marked with a sign branding it the VIP lounge, I show the bouncer the poker chip and he lets me inside; not going to lie I didn't think just having the chip would be enough to get in here but I suppose you're not supposed to look gift horses in the mouth… whatever the heck that means. I take a seat at a vacant table as a waitress places a drink in front of me and tells me someone named mister Bunnie would be here to speak with me soon, I take a swig from the glass and quickly spit the contents into a nearby potted plant; it was perpsi and that stuff taste like mule piss.

A few minutes pass after I get a glass of xoke to wash the horrible taste out of my mouth a short wormy man walks over to my table;

"Ahh mister Bunnie I assume?"

The man shakes his head and pulls the chair across from me back when the floor begins to shake, at first I think it's an earthquake but it soon becomes apparent the sounds origin is a gigantic man with legs like tree trunks stomped into the room, he sat down across from me and I could hear the bolts in the chair strain and groan under his mass which from the look of it was about 85 present muscle,

"So you're the representative from Stardust Defenders then?"

I was quite startled by the calm and professional demeaner this man was capable of;

"Yessir; an associate of mine pointed me in your direction when I brought up the topic of possible… _investors_."

"Well not to sound facetious but what makes you think we'd be willing to help fund a security service?"

Before I even get that chance to rebut the sound of a lot of glass breaking emanated from across the building; the sound leaves a single moment of silence before several gunshots ring out and cause a massive panic among the patrons as Bunnie just blankly stares for a minute while he tries to comprehend what is happening;

"Well firstly Mr. Bunnie I think your windows need reinforcement."

I flip the table onto him and pull out my gun as the beat drops… along with my heartrate as Bunni rips the table in half and thrusts his arm toward me.

Oh f**kberries.

* * *

It seems our aspiring business man might be getting a lesson in hostile takeovers much faster then he intended, but we aren't quite done yet: lets see how miss Umi is currently doing;

* * *

Never.

Ever.

Getting on.

Another.

F**king plane.

As long.

As I f**king live.

I can barely heave myself into the cab without horking up my entire digestive track; the cabbie probably thought I was just shit faced from the complementary booze on the flight but I couldn't even think of drinking on those metal deathtraps… * _sigh*_ I need to get my mind of that horrible flight…

So I made it to patch and I'm halfway to the casino and hopefully halfway to figuring out who that crazy chick with the helmet was, oh and maybe mess up the casino a bit for screwing with our review scores. I manage to choke down air sick pills as the cab pulls up and I step out and look at the casino which was about as stock and dull as a building could get on this island; thought even from here I can hear the crappy music and smell the cheap booze, for whatever reason they apparently made it some weird hybrid of a casino and dance club and separated the place by floors counting the casino as a VIP lounge where they keep the cards, lacking the means to get upstairs I slide around to the back of the building and slide into a window, I had to use my semblance and liquefy myself to slide through since the opening wasn't quite big enough for me… oh god I should have let the nausea meds kick in first… ugh but once inside I can start casing the place: it quickly became evident that the clientele of this place were divided to say the least as the ground floor was packed with loud people dressed for a rave being held somewhere that doesn't allow common sense where you could just barely see through the tinted windows of a observation balcony above where I could just make out a desk and some containers, seems like a good place to start looking. I still had no means of reaching the VIP floor through conventional means so I try something unconventional: I lock myself inside the bathroom and with some concentration I once break myself down into water and slide into the drain and slide my way inside the pipes and once I find a vertical pipe I start ascending until I pour out into a fine crafted faucet and a pristine sink, once I was sure I had all my limbs still somewhere within the puddle that was my being I reconstitute and return to human form and quickly turn around as I make a mess in the sink… becoming liquid always makes me feel sick but I was going overboard this time… blarg…

After a few minutes I felt like I could stand again and stepped away from the sink and poke my head through the door to get my bearings; it looked like I was on the right floor but I seemed to be on the opposite side so I had to figure out some means of making my way there without looking too conspicuous, before I can even take a moment to think of a plan I hear two people talking as the appear to be moving something down the hall;

"Why the heck did the boss buy all these statues? I mean the downstairs casino rakes in way more cash than the vip floor so whats the point of spending so much up here?"

"Well yeah the amount from downstairs totals grosses higher but the relatively limited clientele still brings in a lot of money so adding some tastefully nude statues will class up the floor even more so it should help bring in a few more high-rollers."

"Alright but I still don't see why he bought so many of these… also why is it considered 'classy' if shes naked but covers with her hands but its not classy of she wears like lingerie or whatever?"

"Ugh this bit is going on to long I'll explain later…"

The two continue down the hall and I take my chance and book it towards the room I heard the walk out of and sure enough the room is full of statues of scantly-clad women made of numerous different materials in poses that are both revealing and covering somehow, I take a small amount of water from my flask and bend it into a disk and rotate it to erode one of the statues off its base and after a tense few seconds its falls off, I then drop the base onto its side and hollow it out with my makeshift hydraulic cutter, once that was done I pull the statue aside and hide it so I can begin the… really awkward part: I strip down and shove my clothes into the hollowed out base and right it to stand on it myself and with a deep breath I feel my skin harden and reconfigure into metal and I position myself in such a way that is revealing and yet not and then I wait… slowly breathing in… and out… focusing on keeping myself metal outside… but not inside…

After a few moments the two workers return and start moving me down the hall, they speak to one another but I catch none of it as I am focusing on my semblance and nothing else right now; the last thing I need is to turn my heart to metal and pass out from lack of blood flow. After what felt like ages the two place me down on the far side of the game room next to a door, after more waiting there was a moment where I wasn't in anyone's line of sight so I grab the base and duck into the door; once inside I start frantically putting on my clothes; I wasn't really squeamish thanks to my days of preforming but that right there was like someone's creepy fetish dream that I was forced to live through… once re-dressed I take a moment to get my bearings and I realise I'm in a broom closet which luckily has a set of coveralls and a mop bucket I can use to make it the last of the way, I don the outfit and try to casually make my way down the hall while silently praying nobody notices the statue just disappeared and get suspicious. Thankfully it's a quick walk to where the office looking room was and it was left unlocked; not a great idea for a casino but lucky for me nonetheless, once inside I start rifling through papers and files when it occurs to me that if they do have some crazy masked chick as a hitman they probably wouldn't keep the documents in the main office with the… wait hang on; there was a small framed picture sitting on the desk depicting about five people including two women with a weird tattoo on their forearms, I had noticed the girl I encountered had a weird patch of skin on her arm like a burn but less serious… could it be from a recent tattoo removal?

"OI Jimbo what the heck are you doing in the boss's office? What a tick Jimbo's ass ain't that nice, who the hell are you?!"

Oh f**kberries.

* * *

Miss Navi might have a bit of a predicament to deal with now that she has been outed, but let's take one last chance to grasp all angles of this event by seeing things from the perspective of Desmond… mayhaps 'see' was the wrong term to use.

* * *

I hadn't even made it to the front door before the smell of cheap cologne and even cheaper booze permeate my sinus and dig in harder than a swarm of grimm tickers; thankfully unlike the insects the smells won't explode… wait is cologne flammable?

I ball up a bit of tissue paper and plug my nose with it, so long as I don't tilt my head to far back it should be unnoticeable, I also quickly ball up more tissue and shove it in my ears as I could hear the music about a mile back; once inside it was just as terrible sounding/smelling as I thought it would be with terrible music to add the finish touch of garbage. I gently force my way through the crowd and further into the club, what kind of casino puts a dance floor in the front of the building? It makes entering virtually impossible and would probably turn away gamblers if they can't even get all the way to the machines… ugh I can't waste time thinking about this I need to try and find whoever the heck got that kid to set us up the bomb, I just needed to find someone who worked here and start _discussing matters_ , granted I would have to start by figuring out who was an employee and not just a patron, and then figure out if they just work here or actually know about the criminal affairs taking place here… I might not have planned this as well as I should have. After a few minutes of stumbling through the crowded room I find a somewhat quiet area to stop for a moment and just listen; between the obnoxious music and the ill maintained slot machines grinding against the rust left little room to hear anyone but I swear I could just begin to make something out…

"… _last week… punk kid… temple… got the wall…"_

That sounds incriminating enough to start, I force all other noises out of my mind and focus on the source of that voice, he was sitting in the corner of the room with a few other people around him and based on the smell and their motions they were smoking and talking to each other, I managed to get closer and found a seat nearby to listen in some more:

"So not only does the kid fail to get the data scrolls but he also manages to f**k up setting the charges, little s**t only managed to damage the wall but even then, the monks had a merc with a rifle take out all the grimm anyway it was a f**king waste of time and money if you ask me."

"Damn… hey what the hell do you think the boss even wanted with their scrolls, they just explain some kinda breathing technique don't they?"

"I heard that someone payed him a fat load of lein to get the scrolls and destroy the temple, I wonder what happens now that neither things got done?"

I stopped listening at that point and pressed my fist into the slot machine beside me; the people here were only the middleman in whatever was going on here so I now I had to figure out who runs this place and see if I could pry any info from him… why can't things ever go smoothly for me? I start making my way back towards the entrance hoping I could find someone I could ask about where to find the boss of this place without coming off as suspici-

"Hey you! What th' heck were you doing snooping around us then?!"

It was on of the guys I was eavesdropping on; I had no idea what to say but right about then we're both distracted by the sound of glass shattering and a guy falling towards us…

Oh f**kberries.

* * *

My but these four have a bad habit of getting themselves into trouble, don't they? Let's see if there just as good at getting out of it. Now things get a tad hectic here so I think I'll take the reins for now.

* * *

The next few seconds were utter chaos for everyone inside the casino as little cubes of glass rained down onto the dance floor from the overlooking office along with a man falling towards Desmond who quickly caught the man and used his momentum to toss him at the goon who had been accosting him before, in the confusion and panic of now fleeing clientele the thug was blindsided as his co-worker crashed into him and knocked both of them to the floor, amidst the confusion Desmond took out a strange metal case he had kept beneath his duster and unlocked it before throwing it skyward causing case open up and revealing it contained a disassembled rifle; activating his semblance [BULLET TIME] Desmond assembled the weapon piece by piece as the fell close to him, by the time the rifle was in one piece and ready to fire only three seconds had passed, once ready to fight Desmond was still set on finding answers but before he could move on an oddly familiar aura appeared before him; the deep blue shape was in a crouching position suggesting that it came from the same overhead window as the man he had just caught/thrown but what unnerved Desmond was how he hadn't heard them land despite his heightened hearing, when the figure stood up it quickly became evident that this was the woman from Desmond's odd dream from a few days back he wasn't entirely shocked to meet her as he had vaguely prophetic dreams before; a by-product of his semblance, but he was surprised to run into her here of all places and he wasn't sure whether to regard her as friend or foe.

Navi just stared at him for a moment as she wondered who this strange guy holding the rifle was; he wasn't attacking her but he also wasn't lowering his gun, she decided it would be safer to take him out now and learn his loyalties some other day so with one swift motion she summoned some water from the bottle on her belt and threw a slim torrent of water towards him, to her surprise the man seemed to see this coming and was able to sidestep the attack and bring his gun about and aimed it at her; Navi decided it would be smarter to close the gap given his long barreled rifle would require some space to fire properly; she slid along a slick line of water left by her first attack and closed in on the rifleman quickly, as she expected he began to recoil as there was no longer room to fire though what she hadn't anticipated was the man was proficient at Tae-Kwon-Do as he proceeded to deliver a expertly placed kick to her abdomen sending her reeling back far enough so that when she looked back up she was face to face with the rifleman's gun, before he could pull the trigger though they were both distracted by another loud shattering sound from above them as a man clad in an ill-fitting suit that had been torn and burned crashed through head fist and dropped like a rock to the floor behind the turntable with a sickening thud, the only sight more confusing though was the reveal of a titan like man who stepped over the shards left in the window and stood on the ledge looking down onto the floor below him and glaring at the two rough-housers who had caused even more damage to his establishment then his would-be business partner just did with his cranium to the glass, needless to say he intended to deal with these miscreants in the most fitting manner.

In layman's terms he's gonna beat the s**t out of them.

It had become deathly silent as the patrons of the club had all fled during the fight, the only sound to bring life to the dead air was the weak coughing resonating from the man in red who had been thrown moments ago as he tried desperately to make his everything stop hurting, as he tried to pick himself up he managed to slip on the turntable and start one of the tracks up again, granted it was a garbled mess of swearwords and minimalistic instrumentals so he took a moments to find a better record while the other combatants simply stared in confusion, once he found a good disk and placed it on the table the song had jolted back to life and activated the blinding colours of the dance floor brought everyone back to reality long enough to realise they were about to fight.

TO BE CONTINUED…

* * *

I had actually intended to have the fight scene here but I try to keep my chapters below five thousand words and i was pushing the limit at this point so I thought I'd cut here and have the battle next 'episode'. I PROMISE it won't take as long as usual... don't hold your breath though just in case.


	6. The end because i suck

Okay this might sound melodramatic so I apologize in advance if it does but I am done with this; I've tried to write a RWBY original team story TWICE and both times got myself into a corner and ended up with a low quality story with inconsistent tones and poor characterization, I made this team in hopes of having fun writing a less conventional RWBY team story but I don't like the results and it seems very few other people do either as most would click the story only to leave after the first paragraph so I must be doing something wring if I'm turning people away so fast, it might have had something to do with the buckets of exposition and stupid joke about talking to one of the characters as the author which only sounded good in my head I guess.

So the TL;DR of this is I'm not going to post any new chapters of RWBY stuff, I'm going to focus my efforts on my other story 'Morphine-The Changeling's quest' since people actually seem to like that one and I find it easier to write for whatever reason.

I might try again someday but for now Team GRND is over, sorry to the one fellow who favorited this story that wasn't my friend doing it out of pity.


End file.
